Marineland A circus by any other name... On the Mediterranean coast, not far from Cannes, is Marineland a huge 'marine amusements' park. Here amongst the swimming pools and water slides, adventure golf and children's zoo, is the 'home' of orcas (also known as killer whales), dolphins, seals, sea lions, sharks and a variety of other sea life. This summer CAPS investigators joined the crowds that throng the park, and found to their dismay Marineland is just another circus.
Wild orcas may travel up to 100 miles a day, reaching speeds of up to 30 miles an hour. Males can live to be 50 years old, females may reach 80 years. Families may live in extended groups known as pods, with mothers and their offspring staying together. Wild orcas live in a world of sound, each pod even has its own dialect, and they catch their prey using echo location. Orcas are designed for a life in the sea and have evolved to be part of this complex ecosystem. In captivity their environments are almost universally sterile and barren. And, to make this alien environment even harder to cope with, they are kept in unnatural social groups. Little wonder that orcas in captivity suffer from injury, illness and premature death. At Marineland, there are six adult performing orca. Kim II, Sharkane and Freya were all wild caught off the coast of Iceland. Shouka, Valentin and Inouk have all been born at Marineland. Another calf is reported to have been born this year to Sharkane. Wiki as the calf is known, was born in June, but was not seen by our investigators when they visited Marineland. We cannot even imagine the trauma for those whales plucked from their wild expanse to enter this sterile prison. Nor for the young whales, who despite all that their instincts must tell them, have known nothing but the featureless tanks into which they were born. David Taylor the international zoo vet who was featured in a Channel 5 series, 'Flying vets', is the vet called in to treat Marineland's cetaceans. In the programme David Taylor visited Marineland, and said 'I think all the dolphins and the whales that I see in Marinelands and zoos are happy. We see no signs of stress and we look for it, not just vaguely trying to interpret their behaviour, we also because of our regular blood sampling we're looking for the chemicals that would be released if there were stress in the body. It's a nice life here, lots of interest and they are looked after better than the Queen of England.' Sam Scott, Veterinary Surgeon and lecturer in animal behaviour therapy, ethology and the welfare of captive animals comments on Taylor's claims: 'I assume that he is mainly referring to cortisol levels. Firstly - do we have parameters for non stressed dolphins to compare? Secondly, cortisol alone is an unreliable measure of stress in any animal. e.g., calves release more cortisol prior to being bucket fed with milk than they do being transported. Are they very stressed when fed - or do they look forward to being transported? Cortisol alone is not an indicator of stress per se. However, there may be other chemicals to which he is referring and I would be intrigued to know what they are and on what the interpretation of the assays is based since we will have no wild samples with which to compare - or have they compared them with say Keiko when at his worst? Even that would be unreliable.'
The tank is divided into five pools and contains in total 44 million litres of salt water. The purification station can filter 9,000 cubic metres of water per hour. A 64 metres long and 4.6 metres high glass wall offers, according to Marineland's promotional literature, 'a panoramic underwater view'. It may all sound at lot, but the principle pool is just 11 metres deep - not a lot for an orca, let alone seven. The orcas perform four displays each day, in a stadium that can hold a staggering 4,000 people. The first is at 11.15 am, they finally finish after the 9.30pm show. The tank is divided into five sections, with the largest being where the display takes place. When not performing, the orcas appear to spend much of their time in the smaller pools. The orca shows were filmed by CAPS investigators in August. We were stunned by the party atmosphere in the orca stadium as the whales went through their routines. The crowd was encouraged almost to a 'frenzy' by the presenter, who urged them on to do 'Mexican waves' akin to those at football matches and rock concerts. With almost deafening music and cheering as the show began, this was clearly entertainment, not education. Indeed the spectators clearly came to be entertained. This was aquatic circus at its worst. The trainers were not showing the public natural behaviours of orcas, instead these animals were conditioned to simply put on a show. Marineland really went for the 'wow' factor, trainers were in the water with the orcas and there was a lot of physical contact, riding them, kneeling on them, standing on them and more.
The commentary was at times difficult to hear because of the loud music. We wondered what the whales make of this assault on their acoustic world, and what people actually took away from their encounter with orca. Probably, like the lion tamer working with the 'ferocious' lions in the circus, the spectators learned that it is acceptable to keep these awesome animals in tanks, to be dominated by their trainers, because it is a fun day out. There were a few nods by Marineland to giving the demeaning spectacle a little gravitas. The tank the cetaceans live in is referred to as an enclosure, and they perform not tricks, but behaviours. These included 'waving' with flippers and tail, 'bowing to the audience', jumping high out of water to take fish out of the trainers mouth and tail slapping. A trick would seem a reasonable description. Children enjoy being splashed and getting wet through and at Marineland this was encouraged. Children were invited down to the poolside and the orca ordered to swim along the pool edge and splash water over the side. The water that soaks the children, often on their faces, may, of course, be contaminated with whale faeces and urine. A dolphin produces over a gallon of urine and 3lbs (1.4kg) of faecal waste. Multiply this by the weight of just one orca and you have a lot of contamination. A male orca can weigh up to 5 tons, and a female up to 3.5 tons. There are 6 orca using the pool at Marineland. We wonder whether anyone has ever tested the water that is splashed over the children as entertainment. The male orca has a dorsal fin that can reach 6ft in height. Yet in captivity the dorsal fins of many mature male orca begin to droop to the side, eventually collapsing. The causes of this condition are unclear. Scientists believe that it may be due to the circular swimming patterns that the whales consistently carry out in performances - indeed given the space, they have little option but to carry them out most of the time. It could also be due to increased stresses on the fin or effect of the sun on the tissue because the orcas spend more time at the surface of the water than their wild counterparts would. Whilst few orcas in the wild have drooped dorsal fins, it is common in captivity. Kim II, the male at Marineland had a bent dorsal fin (see photo below).
Erich Hoyt has studied orca in the wild off Vancouver Island British Columbia. He is co-director, Far East Russia Orca Project, and senior research associate, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Erich is also author of several renowned books on the subject, including 'Orca: The Whale Called Killer', and 'The Performing Orca'. We asked Erich to comment on our footage of whale shows at Marineland.
This summer, approximately 49 orcas were being kept prisoner around the world (mainly in the USA) to amuse holiday makers and day trippers. There are no dolphinariums in the UK, although a few sea lion shows continue. HOW YOU CAN HELP
Photographs © Captive Animals Protection Society |
