Despite holding dolphins captive in its theme park facility for over 40 years, Sea World on the Gold Coast has recently signed up to participate in a World first study to determine the state of welfare of its cetaceans. It beggars belief that Australia’s premiere marine theme park, along with every other captive dolphin facility across the world, has never actually conducted any robust scientific-based research into what conditions optimize good welfare of cetaceans in their entertainment facilities.
A bottlenose dolphin at Brookfield Zoo wears a biol-logging device to measure her activity levels and movement. IMG: Chicago Zoological Society
This World first multi Institutional study’s very first step is to “develop indicators of welfare,” yet Sea World claim they already know what those indicators are.
Trainers and staff at Sea World, during their talks and circus-like shows, regularly tell visitors to the park that the dolphins are like their family; they are happy because we know them and we love them. They consistently claim to be the experts in captive-dolphin welfare because they spend more time with these animals than they do with their own children; their “professional judgement” is self-evident.
Cliify, A rescued dolphin at Sea World
In their infinite animal welfare wisdom, Sea World has again this year chosen to host “Carnivale” at its only animal based park rather than at Movie World, where it was originally held, and where there aren’t captive animals impacted by the event.
Carnivale is an after-hours sound and light filled event incorporating street performers, live entertainment and random pyrotechnics. This year the park even boasted it would host “the biggest laser light show the Gold Coast has ever seen.” Incredibly though, this month-long event, according to the “animal care staff” has no impact on the animals at the park whatsoever. Sea World’s Director of Marine Science often makes comparisons that its animals are no different to pets, and that dolphins are very similar to the family dog. So…to draw on Sea World’s own parallels, Carnivale would be terrifying for its animals and a captive dolphin’s worst nightmare.
Sea World says:
“We take any night event seriously and we fully evaluate all these events as to how they would impact our animals. We always prioritise the animals’ welfare over any event and we have many years of history that allows us to understand the sensitivities of the animals in regard to the scope of the event.”
One might ask how does Sea World fully evaluate the impact to their animals, given we now know they have no scientific way of measuring the animals’ welfare?
Sea World says:
“The Aquacolour Spectacular is located in the Sea World Lake at the front of the park, none of our animals reside within this lake.”
This is correct; none of the animals reside in this lake, yet virtually all of Sea World’s rescued dolphins are kept a mere boardwalk’s width from it. They have no shelter from the light or blaring noise; they are totally exposed to the entire blinding, deafening show. A visitor to this years event said, “the noise was just constantly pumping,” and “they even had a speaker set up inside one of the pools so that the music had to travel across the pool with dolphins in it.” “The dolphins “looked” agitated and one of the seals was constantly barking.” “There were random bursts of light going off all the time.”
IMG:Google Earth
Sea World says:
“Our animal care team is onsite at each of these events monitoring our animals, at no time have the animals shown any behavioural change, stress or anxiety whilst there was entertainment and music adjacent to their areas.”
Keeping in mind we’ve just learned the captive industry has no scientific clue about the welfare of its own captive animals, should we believe the animal care staff when they say, “there are no obvious signs of stress or anxiety”? Does this mean there isn’t any? Responses of marine mammals to noise can often be subtle and barely detectable, and there are many documented cases of apparent tolerance of noise. We all know Sea World already exposes its animals to constant and unrelenting noise.
However, marine mammals showing no obvious avoidance or changes in activities may still suffer important consequences such as stress and hearing loss. Animals may also tolerate noise in order to remain in a preferred location, such as a feeding area, even if the noise causes stress or other inconspicuous effects. This is particularly true in a captive environment where food is supplied to the animals in order for them to perform and provide entertainment to the parks paying visitors.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reported in a behind the scenes expose on January 9 that demonstrated the Carnivale event would have created disturbances to the animals for months prior to its launch in January. It wrote: “Fast-forward to November 30 and they were slogging it out installing a massive ‘rig’ in the middle of the lake fitted with laser towers, 172 lights each containing 32 LEDs inside and nine high-powered water jets capable of shooting massive fountains. Every 2m along the rig is an ultra-bright light fitted with a special nozzle that simultaneously shoots light and mist toward the jets of water, creating a ‘water screen’ that images are projected on to. It took fountaineer Lawrence Ryan two months to program and choreograph the music with the lasers, fountains and flames. He did 85 per cent of it via computer ‘visualisation’ before testing it in reality only a few weeks ago. By opening night on January 5, the team have played it over and over and over again, hundreds of times, fine tuning and tweaking elements. “Last night we got out at 1.30am,” says Oracle Liquid business development manager Dianne Parris.
Even The Humans Can’t Cope!
It is also interesting to note that even patrons of the Carnivale event complained about the brightness of the Aquacolour Spectacular’s lights, “..we were in the front row and for the majority of the time before the show we had 3 bright pink lights directly in our eyes so couldn’t see most of the entertainers. Myself, my husband and our two small children constantly had our hands up and at one point tried sunglasses.” And from another guest, “Just a handy tip Sea World, the waiting time before the show you have the lights blaring right into our eyes. I’ve seen a few people with their hands up trying to block it or putting sunnies on at 8:10pm.”
What must it be like for the dolphins whose eyesight is adapted to low-light levels? The impact of extremely bright laser, strobe lighting and random explosions of light on these animals with no ability to dive deep or flee from it, is virtually unknown.
Tallulah directly exposed to Carnivale
Sea World says:
“We are an accredited Zoological institution…While enjoying these attractions our guests also get to visit and learn about our animals and take home conservation messages that we provide. Our marine environment is greatly impacted by human involvement, Zoos and Aquariums attract over 20 million people each year. This is where many people who would never experience these animals in the wild build an appreciation that may hopefully have a lasting effect on their actions towards marine conservation.”
Sea World is accredited by the Zoo and Aquarium Association, who has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and who are viewed with increasing scepticism. So too, the Queensland Government’s Exhibited Animals Department to whom Sea World Gold Coast are accountable, yet it seems there are no requirements that Sea World report to their governing body regarding the welfare of its animals. Nor is Sea World answerable to anyone when deciding to host a circus-like event such as Carnivale. After all, Sea World are the experts in the room when it comes to the “welfare” of dolphins —right?
Blind Freddy can see Carnivale cannot be good for the dolphins or other animals at the park and the event has absolutely nothing to do with education, conservation or inspiring protection of the marine environment.
Graphic: Peta Wilson IMG: Sea World Gold Coast
These animals are trapped in their large, yet barren and shallow sandy bottom lagoons, in no way resembling their natural habitat where they would normally have the ability to flee. Sea World’s dolphins can go no where and are subjected to loud noise, flashing laser lights, screaming crowds, random bursts of flame and an unusual change of routine caused by the hosting of Carnivale. This doesn’t correlate with the “oasis” and “sanctuary-like” environment that Sea World tells the public it provides to its dolphins and it certainly doesn’t instill faith that these experts have any idea what it means to truly put the welfare, science based or not, of their animals before its business, the business of making money.
TAKE ACTION: Sign the Petition and ask Sea World to do the right thing for the welfare of its animals and move Carnivale out of this Park! https://www.change.org/p/move-carnivale-out-of-seaworld?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=link&recruiter=26384834
Write to Sea World: https://seaworld.com.au/contact-us.aspx Write to Exhibited Animals Queensland: exhibitedanimalenquiry@daf.qld.gov.au
References:Wielgart 2007 http://web.pdx.edu/~zelickr/sensory-physiology/articles/2013-articles/for-2013-05-15/eScholarship%20UC%20item%2011m5g19h.pdf http://what-when-how.com/marine-mammals/noise-effects-of-marine-mammals/
* The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the original authors unless otherwise referenced.
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