Should you swim with dolphins?

Tons of people have ‘swim with dolphins’ on their bucket list and there’s no shortage of facilities willing to offer this experience (at a price!). But that begs the question…should you swim with dolphins?

(Spoiler alert: The answer is ‘no.’)

Dolphins as a species

Dolphins are a highly intelligent species. They live in complex social groups and can swim up to 40-80 miles in one day. These attributes make it particularly difficult to appropriately manage dolphins in captivity.

Captive Dolphin Welfare Challenges

Space: Dolphins are used to swimming over large areas in open ocean. In a dolphinarium, dolphins are limited to tiny pools…some only 80 feet wide and 80 feet long…and only 10 feet deep. Captive dolphins are confined to these small pens for their entire life. Often multiple dolphins per pen, which means there is no room for a dolphin to escape from aggressive pen mates.

Enrichment: Dolphins are super intelligent and are used to a rich, varied environment as they solve daily problems and hunt for food. In captivity, dolphins are routinely kept in plain concrete pools with minimal to no enrichment to provide mental stimulation. Extreme boredom can cause negative behavioral reactions such as aggression…to both other dolphins and people.

Water quality: Chemicals such as chlorine are added to pools to make the water safe for humans. Dolphins are not acclimated to living in chemically treated water and can suffer chemical burns and other health issues.

Sourcing of animals: Many dolphinariums capture their dolphins from the wild–causing severe stress and disruption to family groups. Even facilities which use captive bred dolphins disrupt family bonds by removing babies from their mother’s side far too early–so that the young dolphins can begin training (and working) immediately.

Work load: Most Swim with Dolphins programs have hundreds of visitors per day…every day! And only a handful of individual dolphins each. They require their animals to work long, repetitive hours day in and day out. Most facilities require their animals to work…forcing interaction and withholding food if the animals choose not to work.

But they look happy!

Dolphin’s lips have a slight upturn at the corners…which, to humans, makes them look like they’re smiling. But this is just the way their lips are shaped. It doesn’t actually indicate happiness.

But it’s an educational experience…right?

Swim with Dolphins Experiences often advertise that they’re an educational experience. However, education tends to be minimal to non-existent in the majority of programs as the main goal is to move as many people through the experience as possible. Even when an educational component is included, studies have shown that participants did not sufficiently retain the information presented to them during the experience.

Regulating Swim with Dolphins Experiences

Why aren’t these experiences regulated or inspected? Many of these experiences take place in locations where regulation is difficult. And, even if a facility is inspected and found lacking, the fines issued are small in comparison to the amount of revenue even a single dolphin can generate.

The best way to regulate swim with dolphin programs is through market demand. These facilities exist solely to cater to tourists and cannot survive without tourist support. Many tour operators (such as Virgin Holidays, Airbnb, Expedia, etc) are taking steps to stop offering experiences that include captive dolphins due to welfare issues.

What about swimming with wild dolphins?

But what about wild dolphins??? Swimming with wild dolphins is also not advised. The presence of people disrupts normal behaviors and can cause undue stress for the animals. Also, there is high risk to the humans involved as dolphins are fast and strong…with sharp teeth!

Alternatives to Swimming with Dolphins

The best alterative to swimming with dolphins is a responsible dolphin watching tour where you can observe dolphins in their natural habitat. Most tours have a naturalist on board who can help you better understand these amazing creatures and their environment…as well as answer any specific questions that you may have. Do make sure that the tour operator you select follows all applicable guidelines for marine wildlife viewing (boat speeds, viewing distances, etc).

(Check out this blog post on Responsible Whale Watching which is also applicable to Dolphin Watching tours)