Actually there are quite a lot of dolphinaria open that shouldn't be. A lot of the Russian and Asian facilities are quite small or over populated (I will have to dig out some of the photos I had). There are very few on any kind of scale that are decent for them. Sea World, Marineland France and a couple of others are the exceptions, not the rule. I still wouldn't say the majority of Orca tanks are acceptable. Again, Marineland and Sea World have the better of the tanks. Loro Parque is deep but not very wide, Six Flaggs pool for Shouka is a little smaller than Sea World California's close up. Marineland Ontario always stuck me as small, but I believe it's about the same size as SWF's show pool with one back pool.
Just because you may subjectively think these are small environments this does not mean that they are as far as the animals are concerned. The actually research on size and type of enclosures that is appropriate is obviously provisional and related to parameters such as the animals behaviour within such environments, do they breed and successfully rear their young being one criteria; albeit a parameter that could be consider somewhat simple but still a valid observation.
If you relate this to basic dimensions then it would be interesting to do animal size ratio and stocking densities audit with for example the gorillas housed at say Howletts with the Orcas held at Seaworld Orlando or Loro Park.
Some countries do have cetacean keeping standards including the UK. The European Associton for Aquatic Mammals produced basic standard guide line for
Tursiops in 1995 which can be found here:
E.A.A.M. Standards for Establishments Housing Bottlenose Dolphins
Also it is very misleading to make damning statements regarding care of cetaceans internationally without taking into account the cultural norms for these societies; clearly what we find objectionable in our culture may not be shared by other cultures. I had friends visit various dolphin facilities in the former USSR on the Black Sea some years ago and conditions were grim but not just for the animals but the humans looking after them so context is required. See also below my comments regarding Japan.
Moreover whilst the Orca maybe the largest member of the dolphin family there is great deal of difference just by the actual fact of physical size than the keeping of smaller cetaceans such as
Tursiops aka the bottlenosed dolphin. Therefore one has to be very careful when damning dolpharia
per se.
The basic thrust of your concerns in your post seem aimed specific at the keeping on Orca in human care (and a brief mention of white-sided dolphins) not directly related to other species such as
Tursiops for which even internationally there are some excellent facilities.
Miami SeaQuarium's pool for Lolita is terribly out of date, it's way too small for the Lag's she lives with let alone a Killer Whale. .
‘Lolita’ is rather a unique case and on par with the other animal you cite at Mundo Marina. These animals can not be moved to other facilities for a number of reasons you basically outline.
As for reintroduction we only have to look at
the dreadful mess regarding the sad fate of ‘Keiko’ as an example. And closer to home the ill-fated
Into The Blue project with three former UK captive dolphins.
See also this for background:
European Association for Aquatic Mammals - EAAM - Release Statement
As a conservational tool reintroduction certainly is valid but as welfare consideration for long-term captive animals is unwise at best and actually cruel in reality. Indeed one could argued by some that these animals should not have been taken from the wild but that doesn’t excuse our moral obligations to their actual welfare not to mention the huge sums of money and time involved in releasing animals such a ‘Keiko’ -
20 millions pounds!!
Which, of course, did result in ‘Kekio’ being ‘released’ in Iceland to make his way to Norway and be found begging for food. He remained the rest of his life being fed in a semi-captive situation where upon his death he quickly buried in a local field with no published post mortem forthcoming
As far as it being ‘way to small for lags’ is this actually the case. The founder animals were caught in 1988 and have since bred. They seem to be doing okay.
Kamagowa Sea World has 7 Orca's in a tiny little pool. They've had reasonable success with breeding, but it's so small and the risk of inbreeding is massive.
I am not sure exactly what standards are legally enforced regarding zoo animal welfare in Japan. But bear in mind that this country still operates whale hunting and drive fisheries of dolphins. It is interesting fact (least we become too smug) that according to my colleague Dr Margaret *Klinowska (1991) just when the first Orcas where being caught for captive display in the 1960s, e.g. Moby Doll etc, the Canadian government was planning to set up machine gun posts in the Vancouver area to kill Orcas which where considered a pest species to fisheries. A thought unthinkable now and I would suspect due in no small part due to their display in captivity.
The statement regarding ‘in breeding’ as regards Orcas I have address elsewhere again on this forum. Clearly you are not aware of the research that demonstrates that wild Orca are by definition in-breed.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691053/pdf/12137576.pdf
This is, of course, hardly surprising if you look at their breeding behaviour in the wild.
Nonetheless, such perceived problem could be resolved by artificial insemination (AI) which has been undertaken with bottle-nosed dolphin and is now considered a far better solution for breeding programmes for large terrestrial mammals such as elephants; semen being easy the fly around the world than a bull elephant or Orca.
I think it is very unlikely that the UK would display Orcas. But so far as Seaworld in the US they have supplied 4 captive bred Orcas to Loro Park.
If, and it's a big if, the UK had dolphins where would they come from?
I think I have mentioned this elsewhere but the owners of Blackpool Zoo -
Parques Reunidos - have various dolphinaria and breed animals on a regular basis. They are also not alone take for example the
Harderwijk Marine Mammal Park’s supply 4 captive breed Tursiops to one of their sister parks in
France.
As far as the import of wild caught animals are concern the stark reality is that all zoo animals are derive from wild caught animals, albeit some generations removed. The scientific and conservational problem of acquire animals from the wild is basically one of the sustainability of the specific target population. Animals are removed from populations in any event by predation, disease and death by accident. I am not suggesting wild capture as a first choice but making a statement that such situations are not as black and white as you seem to suggest. Is it expectable to except animals from a drive fisheries to supply zoos and aquariums rather than they being killed? These are a genuine dilemma when looking at the situation in say Japan and the Solomon Islands.
This is the EAAM statement regarding this matter:
European Association for Aquatic Mammals - EAAM - Statement on Japanese Drive Fisheries
Indeed, some captive cetaceans have been acquired as stranded animals, e.g. harbour porpoises at Harderwijk which may be a more publicly expectable when captive bred stock are not readily available.
I don't think it is too inappropriate to question the ethics of cetacean keeping in light of the publics rather ambiguous attitude regarding primates and other large mammals in zoological collections. Moreover, on a international basis we could all find examples for animals other than cetaceans in zoo and aquaria not kept to the consider best practice but this is hardly balanced or fair.
You yourself admit that Seaworld and Marineland in France have good facilities and I would have thought that these were indeed examples of best practise rather than actual exceptions such a loan animals such as 'Lolia' in a pool constructed in the 1970s and I doubt very much that SeAquarium and similar aquaria are seriously thinking of continuing to maintain Orca once their current animals have gone.
NOTES:
There are some quite good photo and stats on this site re: current captive Orca facilities.
Cetacean Cousins: Captive Orcas
REFERENCE:
*KLINOWSKA M., 1991. Dolphins, Porpoises and Whales of the world. The IUCN red data book. IUCN, Gland/Cambridge UK