The Cove

NAIB Volunteer

NAIB Volunteer

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Volunteering at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and naturally working occationally at the Dolphin Exhibit, I have been getting question after question from people who want to shut the National Aquairum and any other zoos and aquariums housing dolphins down. They seem to think that all dolphins in captivity are from these Japaneese drive hunts, and I feel that Rick O'Berry is mis-informing the public. I disagree with Japaneese drive hunts entirely, but I feel the message that is relayed in the Cove is not as direct as it could be.
Do any of you who volunteer at aquariums with dolphins experiace these problems?
Any of you volunteer at SeaWorld?
I don't even know if SeaWorld has volunteers.
 
SeaWorld has, to the best of my knowledge, never had any sort of volunteer program. The only thing I know they do, on occasion, is student internships.

The best way to deal with such questions, I think, is to simply tell the truth: The vast majority of captive dolphins, in the USA at least, are captive-bred. The proof of such is readily available in public records through checking with NMFS and/or USDA-APHIS.

If the person(s) asking are bound and determined not to believe you, there's just not a lot you can do.

As much as I might disagree with his views on cetacean intelligence, Randy Brill summed it up very nicely at one time.

"If you believe, no explanation is necessary. If you do not, none will ever suffice."

Happy travels.
 
I had feared this would happen after all the widespread "The Cove" showings. Personally I believe that the drive hunts are wrong but I do not agree with O'Barry's inclusion of his same-old "anti-captive" spiel. If it weren't for dolphinariums, the drive hunts would still exist and all of these dolphins would be killed. Cetacean welfare gets so much bad media attention it is ridiculous!

As for the visitors, the best you can do is give them to truth. The drive hunts have little or nothing to-do with most US dolohinaria and they would still continue without the presence of them, in the US or otherwise. What do you say to them? Do they realise that info from O'Barry is just about as biased as you can get?
 
The Cove - The Truth!

I believe it is important that everyone who watched The Cove should also watch these two videos.


Dolphin Show = Dolphin Kill? An Investigation of The Cove Part 1

Dolphin Show = Dolphin Kill? An Investigation of The Cove Part 2

Watch on YouTube


Peter Dickinson
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@Peter Dickinson. Thank you for the videos. Those videos are the sort of thing needed in all documentaries.
 
These are great videos! So glad someone else has addressed the issues that I had noticed myself! When someone is given a shot in the limelight it's so easy to just pile in all the personal issues aswell! i.e. O'Barry's personal views on captivity.
 
The above looks like forum spam

All they did was take verbatim quotes from my post and sealion's, posted the composite, and stuck spam links in the signature.

'lehua768' has been reported as a forum spammer. Hopefully, they will be banned and their worthless junk removed.
 
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