Dear Editor
Please consider printing this letter in your newspaper as a response from WDCS to the comments made by EPMV in its letter entitled "Rosia Bay proposals", which was printed in Panorama last week.
In 2007, WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society published a report on the subject of Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT), which questioned its safety for both participants and the dolphins involved, reviewed the scientific literature that questions whether DAT works, looked at the effectiveness of DAT and reviewed some therapeutic alternatives.
Our findings led us to conclude that there is considerable potential for detrimental impacts for both humans and dolphins in DAT programmes, that there are high costs to the participants, their families and the dolphins involved in this form of therapy, that there are no official standards, or enforceable guidelines, relating to the provision of this therapy and that there is no scientific evidence to demonstrate that it is any more effective than any other animal-assisted therapy or that it has any long-term benefit. We therefore believe that the considerable problems associated with keeping dolphins in captivity can in no way be justified by the provision of DAT.
We welcome the Gibraltar government's decision not to allow the display of wild-caught dolphins but without EPMV disclosing where it intends to source the dolphins it proposes to display at Rosia Bay from, and knowing that dolphins continue to be captured from the wild to supply dolphinaria that export their animals elsewhere, it is impossible to alleviate concerns about the impact of its dolphinarium proposal on wild dolphins
Four published studies looking at mortality rates among bottlenose dolphins in captivity indicate a higher year-to-year mortality rate for animals in captivity than in the wild. It should be noted that these studies were conducted using data collected from US dolphinaria, where husbandry techniques are better developed than in some other parts of the world, where mortality rates may be much higher.
These findings are particularly significant given the captivity industry's claims that they keep these animals safe from predators, pollution and other human-induced threats. Furthermore, the risk of a dolphin dying increases six-fold during the first five days after a capture and a similar mortality rate is seen after transport between facilities, suggesting these animals never get used to transportation. Even well-intentioned care cannot protect these animals from the risks posed to their health and welfare by confinement in captivity.
WDCS is a registered charity and environmental non-governmental organization that works actively to address, among other threats, the risks posed to wild whale and dolphin populations through boat collisions and harassment. WDCS supports responsible wild whale and dolphin watching and actively supports efforts to reduce the risks posed to dolphins in the Florida Keys and elsewhere as a founding partner of the Dolphin SMART programme. More details can be found at www.wdcs.org/whalewatching.
Finally, WDCS' remark that Gibraltar would be praised for implementing measures to prohibit capture, trade and captivity of these animals is well-founded, based on responses to similar legislative change in other countries. We continue to call on the Gibraltar government not to risk the conservation and welfare risks to dolphins that are inherently associated with any dolphinarium.
Yours sincerely,
Cathy Williamson
Captivity Programme Manager
WDCS
Dear Sir,
In a letter published in several Gibraltar newspapers last week, Europa Point Marine Village (EPMV) Ltd. make an attempt to reply to both to our friends in the well respected Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and to ourselves. WDCS may wish to publish its own response, so we will deal purely with points that refer to us.
Let us first point out that we have no quarrel with the majority of the facilities EPMV claim to want to set up in Gibraltar, provided these are properly done with the right aims and protocols following extensive local consultation. However, those activities that rely on captive dolphins are unacceptable. Furthermore, as we have already pointed out, there is no need here for a rescue and rehabilitation centre for stranded animals given the very small number that occur in Gibraltar.
EMPV accuses GONHS of 'presumptuous nonsense ... without any foundation whatsoever', when we suggest that their facility in Gibraltar would create increased demand for captive dolphins worldwide. Yet they do not offer any evidence whatsoever that we are wrong.
Indeed EPMV constantly fail to address our points, merely repeating weak arguments that we have already refuted with overwhelming scientific evidence. For example, by stating that dolphins live longer in captivity when we have listed extensive scientific work that says they do not. And again, the suggestion that animals are BETTER OFF in captivity to avoid the 'dangers' of the wild is ludicrous. It shows EPMV's lack of knowledge of the way that natural systems work and of the main principles of nature conservation. Let us then take every wild thing into captivity, and live our own lives out in prison in safety from the world around us.
We have made our comments time and again and yet they continue to ignore them. Instead they insult us by trying, with ill-founded sentimental arguments, to appeal to what they must think are the ignorant minds of the Gibraltarian public.
Now they go further with the old trick of promising hundreds of imminent jobs. EPMV is of course free to solicit CVs from prospective employees, but this is premature and presumptuous, when the company has not obtained permission for the proposed dolphinarium, and indeed, Government has even stated that it is not considering the proposal.
It is also mischievous. It may give false hopes to unemployed persons who apply in good faith. Moreover, it is likely to be yet another example of EPMV's scheming as it will no doubt try and use any applications that it gets to put pressure on the planning authorities in favour of their proposals. This would be a despicable abuse of the aspirations of job seekers.
EPMV does not seem to be aware that we have decades of experience and a wide range of qualifications in the fields of ecology and nature conservation and that we are not the amateurs they may have expected to find in our small community.
The developers are clearly trying to pull the wool over the eyes of many in Gibraltar, and Gibraltar must show that we have matured beyond those other jurisdictions where similar organisations set up their outdated and degrading acts.
Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society (GONHS)
Link to the letters column: http://www.panorama.gi/letters.htm
The New York Whale and Dolphin Action League
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