Dolphins&Whales in UK Zoo's/Aquariums
- Thread starter Haruki
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Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Welcome to Zoochat Connor,
As Maguari has said there are no rules to bring them back,the last Killer Whale was at Windsor I think it was.The last Dolphins were also at either Windsor or Flamingoland but I can't remember too much.
Here is the link to Windsor's gallery theres some photos of Willie and Nemo the Orcas
!
http://www.zoochat.com/gallery/windsor-safari-park/
As Maguari has said there are no rules to bring them back,the last Killer Whale was at Windsor I think it was.The last Dolphins were also at either Windsor or Flamingoland but I can't remember too much.
Here is the link to Windsor's gallery theres some photos of Willie and Nemo the Orcas
!http://www.zoochat.com/gallery/windsor-safari-park/
Last edited:
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
You maybe intrested in this,it states the Orca named 'Winnie' at Windsor Safari park until 1991,I haven't(yet)found any information concering the Dolphins.
Cetacean Cousins: Captive Orcas: Windsor Safari Park
Cetacean Cousins: Captive Orcas: Windsor Safari Park
Wasn't there talk several years ago about Blackpool Zoo introducing dolphins to the zoo?, obviously for whatever reasons it came to nothing.
To be honest, Blackpool would be the one of the most obvious places if anywhere were to bring them back - with the seaside location and being a Parques Reunidos site.
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
I doubt that Blackpool would bring them back,space being the element here the only thing possible would be to send the Sea Lions to another collections and possibly revamp the pool which I can't see happening anytime soon,as it was within the year they revamped the enclosure.
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
As stated by others there is no law saying that they cannot be kept in the UK.
The last Killer Whale in the UK left Windsor Safari Park in 1991.
The last Dolphins also left Windsor Safari Park on the places closure in 1993?,most of them I believe went to Harderwijk Dolphinarium and some of them are still alive at Harderwijk today!
As for the talk about Dolphins arriving at Blackpool thats all it was,it came about as a result of the place been taken over by Parques Reunidos,there has been rumours about a large Marine Park being built on and off for about the last 15 years,the last one I heard had all planning work stopped when the countrys economic climate changed a few years ago!!!
The last Killer Whale in the UK left Windsor Safari Park in 1991.
The last Dolphins also left Windsor Safari Park on the places closure in 1993?,most of them I believe went to Harderwijk Dolphinarium and some of them are still alive at Harderwijk today!
As for the talk about Dolphins arriving at Blackpool thats all it was,it came about as a result of the place been taken over by Parques Reunidos,there has been rumours about a large Marine Park being built on and off for about the last 15 years,the last one I heard had all planning work stopped when the countrys economic climate changed a few years ago!!!
At least in the UK we can go whale watching instead. I try to spend a few days on the Black Isle each year to watch the wild bottle-nosed dolphins in the Moray Firth.
Alan
Alan
I've had a Scottish whale watch on my 'to-do' list for a few years now; somehow it keeps getting overtaken by other things. Maybe next year I'll finally get it done.
Isle of Mull is the place for you maguari, minke whale, orca, common dolphins, bottle nosed dolphin, Risso's dolphin and harbour porpoise, while further out humpback and fin whales can occasionally be found. And don't forget those magnificent sea eagles.
maybe stop visiting so many zoos and you'll find the timeMaguari said:
Dolphin keeping ceased in the UK in 1993 with the last three female dolphins Lotty, Betty and Sharky at Flamingoland being relocated to European facilities. These animals are still alive and have bred successfully several times.
It is popularly promoted by animal-rights groups and indeed the Brighton Sealife Centre that cetacean keeping has be banned and is illegal in the UK. This is not correct.
In 1985 after concerns raised about the care of cetaceans in the UK by various animal and environmental groups the then Department of the Environment, now part of DEFRA, commissioned biologists Dr Margaret Klinowska and Dr Susan Brown to research and review the keeping of these animals in UK zoos and aquaria.
Klinowska and Brown's report 'A Review Of Dolphinaria' was published in 1986 with various recommendations to be implemented by those holding captive cetaceans by no later than 1993. The authors did have the authority to recommend that cetaceans should not be held in captive care if their research supported such a position. However it did not and they maintained that these animals could be successfully kept in animal collections provided they were given the right conditions.
One of these conditions was related to pool dimensions. Whilst some facilities complied with pool size and area none reached or exceeded the suggested minimum depth standards for the species held; for bottle-nose dolphins this depth of at least a third of the pools size should be 7 metres (23 feet). Ironically Marineland Morecambe one of the first facilities to display these animals had a main pool which was 5.53 metres (18 feet) deep with Flamingoland's main pool having a depth of 4.6 metres (15 feet).
However by this time only three dolphinaria remained and all would have to rebuild and/or extend their existing facilities to be able to publicly display animals after 1993.
Windsor's holding company had financial problems and went into receivership in 1992. The site was acquired by Legoland Theme Parks and the animals in the park where rehoused; the dolphins going to Harderwijk Marine Mammal Park.
Brighton Aquarium's lease was sold to the Sealife Centres group in 1990 and the two dolphins and the dolphin 'Rocky' from Morecambe's Marineland became part of a dolphin release project called 'Into The Blue'.
Flamingoland was the last facility to house dolphins and did plan to build an extension to the existing dolphinarium to comply with the new keeping regulations but this did not come to fruition and the dolphins were moved to aquaria in Europe.
My web site has background to the history of UK dolphinaria here:
UK Dolphinaria
That is indeed exactly where I was thinking of.
maybe stop visiting so many zoos and you'll find the time
Guilty as charged!
To be honest, what put the kibosh on it this year was spending money on going to Tenerife last November, which was part zoo visiting (including captive cetaceans), part wildlife watching (including whale watching!) and part 'normal' holiday. So I didn't do too badly out of the swap. Next spring, maybe!
EDIT: actually, may get some wild UK cetaceans before that - me and my Dad are thinking of a weekend in Pembrokeshire later in the summer, which is good ground for porpoises and bottlenoses and is the only place I've ever seen Common Dolphins.
That is indeed exactly where I was thinking of.
Definitely recommended: We've done two trips with Sea Life Surveys from Mull and despite some Scottish weather they were absolutely brilliant, and between the two trips had close up views of Minke Whales, Harbour Porpoises, Basking Sharks and Sunfish; though on the last one we were only two days off seeing orcas!
the last dolphins were definatly at Flamingoland, and left in '93. The Windsor Dolphins left '91/'92? And i believe that the reason that dolphins left the uk was that somtime in the early 80's a new law was drafted requiring all dolphin/whale tanks to be at a certain depth, which only 2 places (flamingoland and Windsor had) and also a certain size (which none had) by 1993. Brighton Aquarium's Dolphins left when it was took over by 'Sealife' and windsors left when it closed down. And Flamingoland saw that it wasn't worth the investment to improve there enclosure, so got rid of theres. The Brighton pool is now a standard 'sealife tunnel' tank, while flamingolands has been converted to a Sealion Pool.