MEXICO CITY (dpa) – Audiences young and old are thrilled by the tricks performed for them by small whales, dolphins and sea lions in Mexico’s marine aquariums.
And new marketing ideas such as “swimming with the dolphins” or bungee jumping into a pool of dolphins have become particularly popular. In the tourism areas up and down the country’s Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, the business with the friendly “Flippers” is booming and aquariums are sprouting up everywhere.But animal rights activists are sounding the alarm. They point to what they say are horrid conditions suffered by the marine mammals in Mexican aquariums.A high mortality rate, physical punishment and denial of food are methods used to train the dolphins, the activists said in a recent study examining the lives of the show dolphins.“The suffering of the dolphins in aquariums is huge,” says Yolanda Alaniz, co-author of the study and chairwoman of the Federation to Protect Marine Mammals in Mexico.“When they are in the free they can live to the age of 40. In captivity it is 25 to 30 years at most,” she added.According to her study, based on investigations made at 19 aquariums, the animals have no way of withdrawing in the small pools they are kept in. This, along with as many as five shows a day which they must perform, leads to stress.The chlorine in the pools, along with a salt level that is too low, combines with the animals’ faeces to create a mixture which attacks the dolphins’ eyes and skin. Trainers will hit the dolphins and keep them on small rations in a method called “hunger training” to make the animals obedient.“Through such conditioning, the animals’ instincts are deformed. In freedom they catch their own fish, while in an aquarium they only get a dead fish if they perform a circus trick,” Alaniz reported.She adds that dolphins are highly intelligent creatures and have strongly developed social behaviour. But in captivity, many either become aggressive or they turn apathetic.Nonsense, says Rodrigo Navarro, director of the dolphin program at the marine park Atlantis in Mexico City.“Our dolphins are happy here. We care for them every day and keep a check on the salt content and temperature of the water,” he says.The Chapultepec amusement park “La Feria” in the Mexican capital also rejects the accusations of the animal protectionists.“Our whales are absolutely sociable and friendly. The animals live in perfect conditions,” says Jorge Echevarria, executive director of the park and responsible for “Nico” and “Gasper”, two white wales imported from Russia.“There cannot be any talk about suffering,” he insists.The two whales’ work place is a small pool beneath a roller coaster ride in amusement park close to the traffic-clogged “periferico” ring highway around the capital. With a roller coaster thundering overhead and to the sound of deafeningly throbbing music over the loudspeakers, Nico and Gasper are made to perform their acrobatic tricks.In nature, such creatures are used to the ice-cold waters of the North Pole. But in Mexico City, the small pool of water reaches 11 to 16 degrees.“It is unbelievable what is going on here in Mexico,” Yolanda Alaniz says. “Mexico is the only place in the whole world where white whales are kept in an aquarium under such conditions. These sensitive creatures suffer greatly from the constant noise and the vibrations (from the roller coaster).”She said that according to scientific studies, whales can hear much higher frequency sound waves than do humans, and such noise is there in abundance at the amusement park.“The noise might bother Mrs. Alaniz, but it is quite tolerable,” park director Echevarria counters. “After all, we have been working here for seven years.”But the animal rights activist argues that in this day and age, no dolphin need ever be kept in captivity.“With today’s virtual reality technology, audiences could be informed and entertained without any aquariums,” Yolanda Alaniz says.
