The National Aquarium Making Plans for the First Dolphin Sanctuary in the U.S.

With the long debate going on about keeping dolphins and whales in captivity, it is good to see some aquariums trying to improve the lives of captive marine animals. The National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD is deciding whether to free their dolphins into a specially built sanctuary. The National Geographic had interviewed the CEO of the National Aquarium, John Racanelli, on this encouraging idea. Here is the entire interview.

Out of their eight dolphins, only one of them has ever seen the ocean, so freeing them into the ocean is out of the question. As Racanelli puts it, “These guys have never seen jellyfish drift by or watched spiny lobsters crawl on the ocean floor. So, if we are to do this, it must be a very carefully prepared and researched project.” If the sanctuary happens, it would have to be located in the south, as they don’t naturally live in the Baltimore area. Although, they will only do this if two criteria are met. First, all of their dolphins have to stay together; and secondly, they have to be able to be viewed digitally by guests.

The National Aquarium had also taken strides a few years ago when they stopped their dolphin shows. Instead, guests can watch the dolphins swim around in the dolphin viewing room or they can watch them being trained in Dolphin Discovery. Here, dolphins only do things they would do in the wild without music or balancing balls on their nose. Discontinuing their shows has probably improved the lives of their dolphins tremendously, but taking it a step further to provide them a more natural environment is a novel and inspiring idea.

Furthermore, the article mentioned that the National Aquarium ceased their captive breeding program after the deaths of two calves in 2011. These two calves died suddenly only a few days apart. The mothers of the calves were half-sisters Spirit and Maya and the father of both calves was Chinook, a dolphin brought in from the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, since there were no males of breeding age at the National Aquarium. The deaths were unexpected. One died from pneumonia and the other died from internal bleeding. Additionally, according to the Baltimore Sun, “Of 14 calves born at the aquarium since 1992, five died within their first year of life. Two more died as juveniles.” This is a large amount of animals dying in one program. Dolphins are highly intelligent animals who need a lot of interaction and a natural environment. Because of their psychological and physical needs that cannot be met in captivity, dolphins should not be bred in captivity. According to the IUCN Red List, the common bottlenose dolphin is not considered endangered or threatened, so there is no need to breed dolphins in captivity for conservation purposes.

Here is the full story on the deaths of the two calves at the National Aquarium.

The anticipated sanctuary sounds like a great advancement to the dolphins’ current living situation. As of now, there are no sanctuaries for dolphins in the United States. They have to live their entire lives working in small, chlorinated pools. However, if the dolphin sanctuary plan moves forward, then it should improve the lives of the eight dolphins at the National Aquarium where they can be in a more natural environment. The National Aquarium may even inspire other aquariums to do the same and provide countless captive dolphins refuge.