The nature of these highly intelligent and social creatures makes them very unsuited for life in captivity. In captivity, dolphins are suffering an impoverished and often significantly shortened existence as compared to their counterparts in the wild. The chronic mental, emotional and physical stress a captive dolphin suffers can weaken its immune system, lowering its resistance to disease and death.

In captivity, dolphins have a lower survival rate than in the wild. Even though there are claims that this controlled environment keeps the dolphins free of predators, pollution and other threats, there is evidence that dolphins in captivity die young. At least 50% of dolphins in captivity will die in less than 7 years.

These dolphins would have been separated from their natural family groups, often in cruel hunts and are forced to live in artificial and confined conditions. It is almost impossible to maintain a family group in captivity, which is extremely unfavourable for these highly social mammals. When dolphins from different pods are forced to live together, problems of socialisation, development of domain wars and aggressive behaviour may surface due to stress. To keep them calm and prevent fights or injuries, tranquilisers or hormones may be given.

Dolphins are very sensitive to sound, and navigate by echolocation out in the wild, however in tanks, the reverberations from their own sonar bounce off the walls, eventually driving some dolphins insane.

Out in the wild, dolphins can swim up to 100 miles a day, to feed, hunt, roam and play. However, captivity cannot provide the dolphins with the space to perform their natural tendencies. Due to the confined space, it is common to observe stereotypic behaviour in captive dolphins such as swimming in endless circles or floating motionless on the surface due to boredom. There have been observations of dolphins biting off the metal bars or chewing on concrete walls of their tanks, which can break their teeth or cause serious injury.

Courtesy of Google (labelled for non-commercial reuse)

Courtesy of Google (labelled for non-commercial reuse)

Courtesy of Google (labelled for non-commercial reuse)

Courtesy of Google (labelled for non-commercial reuse)

In addition, behavioural abnormalities are observed, which are known to have long-term detrimental effects on the dolphins. Dolphins in captivity have been observed to exhibit abnormal behaviours such as throwing themselves out of the tanks and sliding down platforms.

Training the dolphins for shows is another dark secret. Dolphins are forced to learn tricks and unnatural behaviours. Withholding food and isolating dolphins are 2 very common training methods. Activities like beaching themselves in performances have also been found to be extremely harmful to dolphins as it damages their internal organs.

Courtesy of Google (labelled for non-commercial reuse)

Courtesy of Google (labelled for non-commercial reuse)

Courtesy of Google (labelled for non-commercial reuse)

This is a footage of a wild dolphin being captured and trained for captivity:

Research has shown that dolphins only spend 10-20% of their time at the surface. However, in the small and shallow tanks in which they are held captive in, dolphins end up spending more than half their time at the surface. This unnatural situation can cause harmful effects on the dolphins such as skin problems.

The tanks are cleaned with chemicals such as chlorine, which eventually leads to further problems like chlorine poisoning. Dolphins have been reported to have skin peeling off, or being unable to open their eyes. Furthermore, bacterial and fungal infections have been known to be one of the leading causes for the dolphins’ deaths. As studies have shown, bacterial and fungal infections is the reason for the 4 dolphin deaths in our very own Resort World Sentosa (RWS) since 2008. This has sparked a petition by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to release the remaining 23 dolphins.

The social, physical and psychological stress can cause ulcers and neurosis in dolphins, resulting in them being routinely supplied with drugs. In addition, vomiting, increased susceptibility to diseases and death can result.

This video below is a summary of the impacts of captivity on dolphins:

Due to the high mortality of dolphins in captivity, more capture hunts are being carried out to supply the growing demand for dolphins in marine theme parks and attractions. Entire pods of dolphins are targeted, and only the young and fit are taken. These are future generations for the already vulnerable populations in the wild.

The smile is nothing but a facade. Can you still bear to watch dolphins perform in marine theme parks?