To not get swimming with dolphins

[allthegoodnameshadgone]

I just don't see the attraction. Sea lions sound more fun.

Change my mind for me and tell me your lovely experiences swimming with dolphins.

(We are thinking about going to Florida).

come to New Zealand and you can swim with them in the wild, you go out in a boat and if they see a pod they stop and you get in the water and if the dolphins want to see you they come on over, they have big rules about not reaching out to touch them and not swimming towards them etc
Dolphins are fucken huge when they swim really fast towards you and then duck down and go under you ( they possibly laugh at the shock on our faces when they do it too)

Swimming in the wild only. I recommend Jemma Prittie who organises small group swimming with wild dolphins.

OP well done. As for other PPs mentioning the selling of captive mammal swimming being good for SEN children - was this really good research or just the sea worlds pumping it up?

Millie- no more beneficial than meeting any other child-friendly animal, I guess.

It's not something you could even easily do as therapy all the time either. (nor should it be).

Animals captured and performing for money (a human construct) in a contained pool (a human construct) for profit that benefits humans... on all levels that's morally wrong. No matter what the good cause.

I loved dolphins as a child, had an “adopted” dolphin who lived off the Scottish coast for years and years. Always wanted to swim with them.

Then I watched Blackfish and that dream died a very sudden death. I’d been to Sea World a few times, 11-13, not really given it in depth thought. I’d never go again.

Don't know if anyone else has written this but for dolphins you need to read (available on FB page) The Cove. RIGHT NOW dolphins are being captured in Taiji, Japan. Most go to the captive dolphin industry ripped from their families. The 'ugly' ones are killed for their meat, the babies taken out to sea and dumped back into the water without any parents or family pod to support them.

No one any longer should be supporting dolphin or whale captivity. The things they have to do them to maintain their 'health, the infections they get, their shorter life span, the depression, the psychological damage is immeasurable.

Literally the videos will make your stomach turn, it's absolutely heart breaking to watch. THAT is where your swim with and dolphin experiences come from.

Ric O'Barry was the guy from the 'Flipper' programmes. He watched one of those dolphins (because just like 'Shamu' (load of shite, it's not just one killer whale called Shamu but multiple adult male killer whales, one after another as in turn each one dies or gets moved to suffer at a different water park) they had to use umpteen Flippers to make the show. He watched the last one kill itself, deliberately, because it couldn't take any more. That's when he started looking at whether captivity was the right thing or not. He decided not.

I am a hypocrite. In 2010 I swam with a dolphin in Discovery Cove. Her name was Jenny she was stolen from the Indian River in 1980 and died of an infection last year. I very much loved the experience but wish now that I hadn't done it.

We were in Florida 10 months after Dawn Blancheau was killed by Tilikum I was completely unaware.

Blackfish is a very eye opening film. then add 'The Cove' and you can also read 'Death at Seaworld' and 'Beneath the surface'. Sealions are treated probably worse than the cetaceans at these places the only way to help them is to not by a ticket.

Thanks for the recommendation @billybagpuss I'm going to download those books. Seen the film Blackfish and agree that it was eye opening.

@Fitzsimmons

Thanks for ruining otters for me

I did it last year in Cuba. The dolphins were kept in the actual sea in a vast area that was sort of sections off (hard to explain) and were well kept, seemed happy, one had just had a baby which was lovely to see (we weren’t allowed to swim with mum and baby)

I never wanted to do it, I did it as my DH always wanted to do it and I thought it might be a lovely experience for the kids.

It was a load of old shite as far as I’m concerned. Far too romanticised when the reality is they are just animals that feel all rubbery and giving them a stroke while standing waist deep in dolphin piss water was about as exciting as...errrm...stroking a wet rubbery animal.

Thought this thread was going to be about bucket list ambitions. I was going to chip in that swimming with dolphins would absolutely not be one of mine and that if I suddenly found out I had a terminal illness I'd get hubby to organise crowdfunding for a more interesting activity for me. Something like 'tripping up the Queen' or 'being allowed to set light to Justin Bieber'. Feel a bit silly now 😳

naught it was black tip reef sharks. They are so beautiful.

Teasntoast I bet the 'vast' area wasn't in the least bit vast from a dolphin's perspective

jeden amazing ive seen many videos of lemons reefs and nurse sharks out in places like the maldives, they look so amazing.

Unfortantally not places i'll ever be able to experence.

I did it years ago, wouldn’t do it again. I was in Florida just a few weeks before the orca trainer was killed and actually saw her and the whale perform. Never knew anything about it until I watched Blackfish. It really got me thinking about how sad these places are and how easily people (me included when I was younger!) are convinced by their spiel that the environment and training mimics their life in the wild.

Please I beg you. Check out the horror that is Rick Barry's FB page. These are very very intelligent creatures and in no way belong in a petting zoo environment.