Dolphin Cruelty in Tulum at Grand Bahia Principe
"A Horrible Environment For The Worlds Most Loved Animal"
Grand Bahia Principe in Tulum has the one of the worst dolphinariums in all of Mexico. The swim with dolphins program that is run by Dolphinaris is bringing the all-inclusive resort a ton of heat on Facebook, TripAdvisor, and Google reviews.A large amount of guests are quite frankly horrified not only that resort supports animal captivity and cruelty but also that it fails to notify guests before they book their vacation that there is in fact an on-site dolphinarium.
After browsing through tons of complaints about both Dolphinaris Tulum and Grand Bahia Principe I had to investigate which required going undercover to see it for myself, and let me tell you that the conditions that these 5 dolphins are kept in are nothing short of appalling.
Dolphinaris don´t allow you to bring a camera that way they can charge people $300+ for photos and stop people like myself documenting injured dolphins, health and safety hazards, and other issues.
No Protection From The Sun!
The first thing that I noticed was that there was absolutely no shade, the 5 dolphins inside the pool are getting blasted by the sun all day long with no deep water to escape into. Everybody on the tour was hiding beneath the Palapa to escape the scorching sun, and it was then that I noticed that dolphins were in fact sun burnt. I asked a Dolphinaris trainer about this and he told me "Don´t worry they need sun to be healthy..." perhaps he is confusing dolphins for plants.
The truth of the matter is that Dolphins are actually extremely sensitive to sunlight (Dolphinaris dolphin trainers should probably know this), this is why dolphins spend the vast majority of their time in deeper water. UV exposure presents the same problem for dolphins as it does for humans including blistering, skin damage, and even cancer.
Shallow Swimming Pool!!
One of the other things I noticed is how shallow the water was/is. The swimming pool where the 5 dolphins are kept is exceptionally shallow; an average sized person can actually stand upright in the pool without much difficulty. There is only a small area of deep water which can barely be more than 3 meters deep. I mentioned this to the so-called dolphin trainer who replied "Don´t worry they can still jump for photos", at the point I realized Dolphinaris really don´t care about dolphins they only care about profits. Not only that but they also can´t even be bothered to educate the so-called dolphin trainers.
Apart from the fact that wild dolphins dive to 300m just for fun a shallow pool means that dolphins don´t have any deep water where they can escape the damaging UV rays of the sun. Also shallow water heats up and retains a higher temperature than deeper water meaning dolphins are in danger of overheating. Also warm water is an ideal breeding environment for pathogenic bacteria making inter-mammal disease transmission a real threat to both dolphins and people.
Not only is the dolphin area in the Grand Bahia Principe shallow and unsheltered from the sun, but it is also extremely small.
You could literally swim from one side of the swimming pool to the other within 12 or so seconds.
Wild dolphins swim over 30 miles per day, but Grand Bahia Principe has 5 dolphins inside a pool so small a dolphin would be unable to reach full swimming speed. Many people on TripAdvisor have observed dolphins bumping into the side of the concrete swimming pool which has been well documents as an act of aggression from frustrated cetaceans in captivity.
Zero Mental Stimulation!!!
The dolphins literally perform the same tricks over and over again. They do this from the 9am until the end of business, 7 days a week… there is absolutely no mental stimulation outside of the mundane activities the dolphins are forced to perform.
Try to understand that dolphins are incredibly intelligent mammals; they are in fact the smartest animals on the planet after humans. In the wild, dolphins use highly sophisticated hunting techniques to catch prey; they also need to solve complicated problems in order to find food.
Wild dolphins live in a seemingly limitless natural environment where they cruise colourful reefs, explore the depths of the ocean, swim full speed, ride waves, dive to 300+ metres, interact with other cetaceans including whales, and constantly face new challenges. The captive dolphins at Grand Bahia Principe just swim around in circles and beg for trainers to throw them frozen fish.
0 Response to "Dolphin Cruelty in Tulum at Grand Bahia Principe"
Post a Comment