A UK Collection applies for Dolphins
- Thread starter Cat-Man
- Start date
ollielloyd
Well-Known Member
Oh, that video is sad...the water looks chlorinated with some sort of chemical skimming the surface, and her poor fin looks white for some reason? What a sad video!
The pool here is only about 6 feet deep. There were three pools like this at Cleethorpes; two around 40 feet x 6 feet deep and the other 40 feet x 12 feet deep. They were made of fibre glass and were supposed to be temporary until concrete pools were made a few years forward. Animals were only there for the summer and return to Flamingoland in the winter. None of them are now legal by either the current US or UK standards. I put a video up of the transport from Flamingoland to Cleethorpes on the forum today.
The 12 foot deep pool was free standing and it had the unnerving habit of moving and rocking if the dolphins rushed about.
They eventually cut it in half. 
I looked after the dolphins in the last season show Cleethorpes before it closed. They were called Max and Leigh and were owned by an American called Charlie Riggs who had been sublet to provide the show via Margate Dolphinarium. The animals returned to Florida Keys the following year. Interestingly, Riggs supplied the dolphins for the film "Day of the Dolphin" which starred George C Scott:
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Dolphin]The Day of the Dolphin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
Getting back to the video, I would suspect this film was taken a very sort time after the animal was introduced. The white on the fins is most like lanolin and/or Vaseline used to protect the skin in transport; hence the bubbles on the pool surface. This takes quite a few days to come off. Chlorine is not a problem for marine mammals if used properly. You may find this article I wrote for International Zoo News of interest:
PRINCIPLES OF WATER TREATMENT IN AQUATIC MAMMAL POOLS
There's is also other information here about water treatment:
MAINTAINING THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT
FYI Heidepark stopped keeping dolphins since 2008 and Gardaland was also scheduled to stop keeping dolphins in 2008, i don't know if they stopped yet...
ollielloyd
Well-Known Member
Wow...the transport of that dolphin looks chaotic. Poor thing...I can only immagine what the hell they thought was going on! Must all be so strange to the dolphins!
I appears that the dolphin show finished at Heidi Park end of season 2008.
Be interesting to know where the dolphins went. It was a quite an old facility and there a number of dolphinaria in Germany no doubt happy to have these animals. Nuremberg for example is now building a large lagoon extension to it dolphinarium:
http://www.tiergarten.nuernberg.de/v04/Dolphin-Lagoon.20.0.html?&L=1
Gadaland still has the dolphins. A friend who worked with them was over there two months ago. No mention of closing the show but there was talk of modifying the routines - what ever that means. I would be very interested to see what happens at Gadaland
The net bit looked rather hairy both for the animal and humans. Hand catching dolphins in water is really not a good idea. You really need to drop the water or use a false floor. Dolphins can still swim around in just a few feet of water and it can be dangerous for the animals and the handlers. We have to remember however this was a very long time ago.
LOL. Thanks for that
Well they will be better off at Nurnerg as I doubt if Merlin would have spent money on upgrading their pool.
ollielloyd
Well-Known Member
Last I hear about Gardaland they weren't moving them, they were just going to make the show educational based...but I guess they moved them! That new lagoon looks awesome! Thats the kind of thing we need here in the UK!!
No - as I said above - Gardaland dolphins are still there.
ollielloyd
Well-Known Member
Oh, I was just reading "I think you should be able to figure it out, but nonetheless:
"The last two animals went to Tiergarten Nürnberg"" ...must of been about something else.
"The last two animals went to Tiergarten Nürnberg"" ...must of been about something else.
I don't think the discussion would be that hard to follow if you read back, that remark was concerning the last two remaining dolphins at HeidePark in Germany.