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<img alt="" src="http://www.ecoclub.com/images/64/dolphins.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 5px;" />It is 72 years since shrude businessmen in Marine Studios dolphinarium in Florida discovered that dolphins could be taught to perform tricks, and four years since the UN Year of the Dolphin 2007, when scientific evidence surfaced that dolphins are human-like, self-aware, intelligent beings and &nbsp;<a href="http://www.indefenseofdolphins.com/">‘nonhuman persons’</a> . &nbsp;In the European Union alone, there are 34 dolphinaria, hosting 280 captive dolphins, whales and other cetaceans, many of whom were not born in captivity but are actually products of poaching and smuggling. &nbsp;There are another 26 dolphinaria in non-EU European countries and many more in the United States, Mexico and Japan.</p>

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Thus, this week greek Green MEP Michail Tremopoulos raised a written question to the Commission of the European Parliament in Brussels, asking the European Commission to consider banning dolphinaria, facilities where dolphins and whales are kept in captivity and forced to ‘entertain’ spectators , in many cases tourists, by performing degrading and unnatural tricks and acrobatics. Tremopoulos based his question on Council Directive 1999/22/EC relating to the keeping of wild animals in zoos which requires that zoos accommodate “their animals under conditions which aim to satisfy the biological and conservation requirements of the individual species”. In their natural environment dolphins travel hundreds of miles daily, something impossible in usually substandard tanks. Two popular European tourism destinations, Cyprus and Croatia have recently banned dolphinaria (joining Australia, Costa Rica, and Chile) deciding that they have nothing to do with environmental education. This week China has banned circa using animals and threatened zoos that continue to abuse animals with closure. The Greek greens are also trying to shut down a recently opened aquarium near Athens. The aquarium, hosted within a zoo, has yet to receive a license from local authorities but keeps operating.</p>

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Dolphin trading is big business, and as environmental legislation is becoming more stringent, the price of live dolphins has sky-rocketed to tens of thousands of dollars. In 2003, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Tipson">Jane Tipson</a>, an animal rights activist was murdered in Saint Lucia while she was campaigning against the construction of a dolphinarium.</p>

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In an ECOCLUB.com Member poll held in January-February 2011, 44% of respondents agreed with the statement that "Dolphinaria and Swim with Dolphins facilities should be banned as a cruel treatment to intelligent, sensitive animals", while another 22.2% was not sure if they should be allowed or banned. Only one out of three believed they should be allowed as 'educational &amp; conservation supporting facilities'. Dolphinaria supporters may wish to consider that few of these facilities provide any significant educational or conservation value, or any such value which could not be provided in a more humane manner.</p>

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Related:</p>

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The Case against Marine Mammals in Captivity - <a href="http://www.wspa.org.uk/Images/159_the_case_against_marine_mammals_in_captivity_english_2009_tcm9-8409.pdf">http://www.wspa.org.uk/Images/159_the_case_against_marine_mammals_in_captivity_english_2009_tcm9-8409.pdf</a></p>

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Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans: Whales and Dolphins<br />

<a href="http://cetaceanconservation.com.au/cetaceanrights/index.php">http://cetaceanconservation.com.au/cetaceanrights/index.php</a></p>

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The Cove<br />

Award Winning Documentary by Louie Psihoyios documents the annual mass killing by spears and knives of some 23,000 migrating dolphins and porpoises in a hidden cove at Taiji, Japan.&nbsp; The film also alleges that the toxic dolphin meat produced is given to school children or sold as whale meat.<br />

<a href="http://www.thecovemovie.com/">http://www.thecovemovie.com/</a></p>