Thomson holiday company promotes dolphin captivity
Despite being one of the partners in the Year of the Dolphin initiative (which highlights the threats to dolphins in the wild), holiday company Thomson (and their parent company TUI) promotes captive dolphin facilities to its holidaymakers. In June, CAPS, working with the Daily Mirror newspaper, exposed how British tourists were paying to swim with scarred and stressed dolphins caged in small 10m x 20m pools near the Turkish resort of Bodrum, having bought tickets from Thomson and other tour operators in their hotels. The small wire pens prevent the animals from reaching the freedom of the sea on the other side. The dolphins, taken from the wild, were covered in scars – consistent with injuries caused by dominance behaviour which is normal in the wild but intensified in the restricted captive space and which can find no outlet for expression except to result in attacks on other dolphins.
It was reported in February that at least ten bottlenose dolphins captured in the notorious drive hunts in Taiji, Japan were exported to Turkey, for display in an aquarium due to open to the public later this year. While Thomson’s soon pulled out of promoting this dolphinarium after the protests, they continue to promote others, such as the Palm Atlantis resort in Dubai - a facility which imported 28 wild caught bottlenose dolphins from the Solomon Islands last year. Please contact TUI and ask them to stop promoting any facility that keeps dolphins and whales in captivity. Write to: Mr Sean Owens, Sustainable Product Manager, TUI Travel UK & Ireland, Wigmore House, Wigmore Lane, Luton, LU2 9TN - sean.owens@tui-uk.co.uk The facility in Turkey is still operating, so please also call on the Turkish authorities to close down the captive dolphin centres: Mustafa Kemal Yalınkılıç, General Director, Ministry of Environment and Forestry - apkkb-ppd@cevreorman.gov.tr Mugla Directorate of Environment & Forestry - ilmuduru@mugla-cevreorman.gov.tr |
CAPS told the Mirror: "Taking dolphins from the wild causes a huge amount of suffering - violently ripping them from family pods, brutally capturing them and holding them in small pens where they struggle and thrash. Injuries, even death, can occur during all stages.”