More people are feeding dolphins and getting too close to them in their boats. (Photo courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory)
Television dolphins like Flipper
and the performing dolphins at
Sea World can trick people into
thinking it’s okay to feed and
swim with wild dolphins. But
Rebecca Williams reports dolphin
researchers say our behavior can
hurt and even kill dolphins:
Transcript
Television dolphins like Flipper
and the performing dolphins at
Sea World can trick people into
thinking it’s okay to feed and
swim with wild dolphins. But
Rebecca Williams reports dolphin
researchers say our behavior can
hurt and even kill dolphins:
(sound of a shorebird crying out)
Fort Myers beach is packed with tourists. I meet a guy named Justin who’s here in Florida from Cleveland. He’s already gotten close to wild dolphins.
“We were out here swimming and dolphins got within a foot of us. It was amazing. I’ve never seen that.”
In this case, he wasn’t doing anything wrong – because the dolphins came up to him. But swimming with wild dolphins can actually be considered harassment if you approach them or touch them.
That’s bad for the dolphins because it can change their behavior. It can disturb their feeding and resting behavior. And it can separate dolphins from their babies.
So it’s illegal to swim with or harass dolphins. You can get fined and even end up with some jail time. And that’s just the beginning of the dolphins’ problems.
Dolphin encounters are getting more common in Florida and Hawaii and a lot of other places. There’ve been more tourists and more boaters in the water… and more commercial operations that promise you’ll get a chance to feed or swim with dolphins.
As cool as it might be for us, it’s actually terrible for dolphins. When people feed them they can get addicted to human handouts.
Cartoon Dolphin PSA: “For me it started with one hit of sardines, oh sardines… that’s where I learned to beg. It was easy to score free fish… with this dolphin smile? Yeah it’s illegal but no one cares…”
That’s a cartoon dolphin in rehab with a bear, a raccoon and a seagull. All those other animals we’ve gotten into some bad habits with.
It’s a message put out by the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.
(sound of dolphin playing in tank at the Marine Lab)
Randall Wells is the head of dolphin research at the lab. He’s spent almost four decades studying dolphins.
He says, in recent years, there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of dolphins getting into trouble with people. More people feeding them and getting too close to dolphins in their boats.
“And we’ve seen an increase in mortality from these kinds of interactions – from people luring animals in towards boats, in towards fishing gear. Dolphins have begun to take bait from lines getting tackle including hooks and lures in their bodies and killing them or seriously injuring them.”
He says, if you feed a dolphin, it’ll often start begging for food from people. And that dolphin will teach its babies or other dolphins to beg.
Sometimes they’ll even eat things that aren’t food. One dead dolphin had a plastic snake in its stomach.
If dolphins get closer to boats, they can get snared in fishing line. It can slice through their flippers. Once, Randall Wells rescued a dolphin that had a Speedo on its head. And because it couldn’t shake it off, the suit was cutting into the dolphin’s flesh.
Wells and his team have been doing a lot of outreach to stop people from getting too close to dolphins. And he says most of the time, it works.
“But there’s still a half percent of people that, by their own admission, insist on interacting with these animals – feeding them and approaching them in ways that are illegal, just because they can and they’ve never seen the negative consequences of doing that.”
If you want to go on one of those dolphin viewing tours, there are some ways to make sure the tour operator’s not adding to the problem.
Stacey Horstman helps run a program called Dolphin Smart. It certifies dolphin tours as responsible.
Right now there are only four businesses in Key West and one in Alabama that’ve gotten certified. But, she says, if you’re in a place without Dolphin Smart tours, you can still ask questions.
“Just to make sure that feeding is not being promoted in any way, that they’re promoting responsible viewing from a distance.”
That means staying at least 50 yards away from dolphins.
She says any ad that shows people swimming with dolphins or handing them fish is usually a sign of an irresponsible business. So those are ones to stay away from.
Dolphins might look cute and friendly, but Horstman says they are wild animals and they need their space.
For The Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.