Seals and dolphins in captivity: is it possible to return animals from dolphinariums to the sea in Ukraine?

What is the problem?

Even though animal rights activists worldwide are fighting for the freedom of marine animals, dolphinariums still exist in Ukraine, Russia, and tourist cities in Egypt, Turkey, the US, and Japan. Keeping mammals in captivity is unacceptable for several reasons. First, the chlorine in the water damages their eyes and skin. Secondly, keeping dolphins in cramped aquariums is like putting a person in a cage. As Pavlo Goldin, a zoologist and paleontologist, and a leading researcher at the Institute of Zoology named after I.I. Schmalhausen told Rubryka, dolphins are used to covering more than 100 km per day, and they are in limited conditions in dolphinariums. Thirdly, the infrasound they emit, reflecting off the pool's walls, disorients them, which leads to captive dolphins living 5-6 times less than their free counterparts.

It is also unacceptable to keep fur seals in dolphinariums. Recently Rubryka learned that Nemo Odesa Dolphinarium brings fur seals to its hotel rooms, where visitors can do whatever they want with them. The situation became widely publicized, and animal rights activists, including the UAnimals organization, appealed to the National Police and reported animal cruelty.

"The police have opened proceedings, but we have no further news or developments in the case," Olha, a representative of the UAnimals organization, told Rubryka.

What is the solution?

The Ukrainian conservation group Environment. People. Law, UA Animals, and many other conservation organizations have been pushing for the closure of all dolphinariums in the country for eight years, but they still exist. 

There were examples of closing dolphinariums where fur seals and other marine animals were kept. They are usually closed under public pressure— when public awareness grows that keeping animals captive is unethical. However, there is also a tendency due to which, despite the ban in some regions on keeping animals in captivity, they do not end up in the sea or ocean. Instead, they are only transferred from one place to another.

One of the most famous examples of the closing of a dolphinarium happened in 2018 in Canada. The Vancouver Aquarium has decided to stop keeping fur seals in captivity after years of campaigning by animal rights organizations and activists. This was also helped by the fact that in 2018 the government of the province of British Columbia, where the Vancouver Aquarium is located, passed a law prohibiting the keeping of fur seals, beluga whales, and dolphins in captivity. The law, called the Cetacean Captivity Ban, was passed after long debates and protests in the country. The ban on keeping these animals in captivity was a significant step in protecting animal rights and preserving wildlife.

All the fur seals that lived in the dolphinarium were sent to a rehabilitation center, where they were given medical care and prepared for their return to the natural environment. However, in the end, most of the animals from the dolphinarium were never released into the wild. Some fur seals have been transferred to other aquariums and zoos in the United States and Canada. For example, a seal named Heli ended up at SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas, and another seal, Rachel, at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Both aquariums still host dolphin and seal shows where the animals are forced to perform tricks and entertain the public.

Even in the Vancouver Aquarium, you can see marine mammals like sea lions that the aquarium uses to attract visitors.

The scientific community maintains that fur seals can be adapted to live in the wild after long periods in captivity, but this requires preparation and training to develop the necessary skills and abilities in the animals.

The world already has experience restoring fur seals in their natural environment after an extended stay in captivity. Researching the results of rehabilitation and recovery in the wild of fur seals around the UK, scientists have found that some animals released into the wild have successfully adapted and lived for up to 17 years in the wild.

Successful adaptation must depend both on the conditions of the animals in captivity and on the training of the animals at various stages, during which the seals learn the skills necessary for survival in the wild.

Returning to mammal closures and removals from the Vancouver Aquarium, some have been more fortunate than their relatives, with several fur seals being transferred to marine sanctuaries. One is the Marine Mammal Rescue Center in British Columbia, where animals are treated, trained, and later released into the wild to live independently.

For researchers to be able to follow the animals, all patients are given bright orange tags with numbers that allow them to track the animals when they are seen again in the wild. Some animals get satellite tags attached to their fur with special glue. This is a more modern method, but also much more expensive. The Marine Mammal Rescue Center notes that due to the value of tags, they are used to monitor the rarest species of mammals. By studying the subsequent lives of their patients in the wild, scientists can learn more about how these animals adapt to natural conditions after captivity and what needs to be paid attention to to improve the work of preparing them for life in the wild.

Ukraine's Ministry of Environment plans to expand the nature conservation areas of the Tuzly Lagoons National Nature Park and create a rehabilitation center for cetaceans there.

As Iryna Vykhrystiuk, director of the park, told Rubryka, the initiative is currently only being discussed. For its implementation, it is necessary to go through long bureaucratic procedures, and the first step is to agree on the decision to attach additional territory to the park, which will become a rehabilitation center at the local level. This is the Sasyk estuary, which was supposed to be turned into a reservoir according to an unrealized project back in the times of the USSR.

In the rehabilitation center, they plan to create conditions specifically for the readaptation of animals to life in natural conditions.

"A dolphin is a fairly intelligent creature, a social animal, and can find a family very quickly — the task is to teach them to hunt. When the animal can find food for himself, and animals removed from dolphinariums do not have this skill, he will be ready to go out into the natural environment," Vykhrystiuk explains. The specialists' task is to maximize the return of dolphins and not to create a pool where dolphins will live out their old age, as is the case in most rehabilitation centers in Ukraine, where bears or birds live.

The option of readapting fur seals at the center is not ruled out. However, Vykhrystiuk notes: after training, these animals should return to the natural places from where they were taken before they got to the dolphinariums.

It is not yet possible to name the time when the center will start working. Even the first step — approval in the local council — is currently being delayed because the head of the local council has not been appointed. However, the very idea of creating a rehabilitation center for cetaceans has existed since 2018, and the fact that it is now being discussed again with the authorities is already a success.

Closing dolphinariums and relocating animals to another place is a complex process that requires special preparation and costs. The best solution is to prevent problems associated with keeping animals in captivity and to encourage the development of programs to restore and protect marine animal populations in nature.

Today, various programs and initiatives are aimed at rethinking the role of dolphinariums in the modern world and their transformation into centers for research and protection of marine animals. For example, in Europe, aquariums are being created to preserve biodiversity, conduct scientific research, and provide education and informational support to the public.

Some dolphinariums offer visitors environmental education programs instead of dolphin shows, where you can learn more about the life and behavior of marine animals and the challenges facing populations of these animals in the wild. Such programs not only help raise public awareness of biodiversity conservation issues but also help raise funds for research and development of programs to restore marine animal populations.

It is also important to support scientific research and programs for the recovery of marine animal populations and to conduct environmental education in society. Why? Because only by drawing attention to the problem will humanity be able to protect biodiversity and preserve nature.