Many species of marine mammals, including small cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), are maintained in captivity (including both tanks and sea-pens) for the stated purposes of entertainment, research or education, and in some cases military use. In recent years, the ethics of capturing and maintaining marine mammals in captivity have increasingly come into question. Many people, including scientific experts, have expressed concerns about the treatment and use of animals in captive facilities and called into question their educational and scientific value.
Although increasing numbers of people consider performances by cetaceans at commercial captive facilities to be unjustified, opportunities for direct physical contact with cetaceans, including touching, feeding and swimming with both wild and captive animals, are increasing in range and intensity – both in the name of entertainment and ‘therapy’.
Mapping the growth of tourism in the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) and other parts of the world, the number of these interactive ‘swim-with’ programs has been growing rapidly. Currently, there are at least 300 dolphins held in approximately 29 facilities across the Caribbean, not including the United States or Mexico.
One of the main objectives of the SPAW Protocol is to regulate and, where necessary, prohibit activities having adverse effects on threatened and endangered species in the WCR that are listed in Annexes I and II of the Protocol. Annex II includes all cetacean species, and the Protocol has direct relevance to the capture of, and trade in, cetaceans for the captivity industry in the WCR. Although the Protocol affords a high level of protection across the WCR to all species of cetaceans on paper, the degree to which bottlenose dolphins continue to be captured locally and traded internationally for display in marine parks and aquaria in the Region is unknown, although the numbers held in captive facilities in the region are increasing.
Cetacean captivity in the WCR
Of the 16 current Parties to the SPAW Protocol, at least half hold cetaceans in captive facilities. In addition, other Parties are currently evaluating active ‘swim-with-the-dolphin’ proposals.
All cetaceans are listed on Annex II of the SPAW Protocol. The Protocol requires, under Articles 10 and 11, that Parties shall ensure, both through national and cooperative measures, the protection and recovery of endangered and threatened species, and prohibit, where appropriate, the disturbance, taking, possession, killing or commercial trade in these species.
Relevant exemptions under the SPAW Protocol
Article 11(2) of the Protocol permits Parties to “adopt exemptions to the prohibitions prescribed for the protection and recovery of the species listed in Annexes I and II for scientific, educational or management purposes necessary to ensure the survival of the species”. However, such exemptions “shall not jeopardize the species and be reported to the Organization in order for the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee to assess the pertinence of the exemptions granted.”
To date, except for the Netherlands Antilles, most Parties have not reported their captive facilities and programs under this exemption provision. It is up to the Parties to decide whether existing and proposed captive facilities in the region can justify commercial trade in cetaceans or their display in captivity on the basis that their scientific, educational or management purposes are or will be “necessary to ensure the survival of the species.” However, the collection or trade in dolphins does require an exemption report to be prepared, because it involves the taking or possession of a listed species under the SPAW Protocol. Therefore, the Secretariat encourages Parties to report their exemptions under the recently-adopted voluntary reporting format available from the SPAW Secretariat or Regional Activity Center (RAC).
Unlike zoo breeding registers for some endangered species, there is no centralised inventory of captive cetaceans in the Caribbean, nor record of their survival and reproductive rates. In the absence of a comprehensive reporting mechanism, the SPAW Secretariat is seeking the cooperation from Parties to report their existing, and any new, facilities that hold captive cetaceans and other marine mammals in the Region.
