Everyone wants a Dolphin Experience! I would be willing to bet that most of the population has “swim with dolphins” written on their bucket list… this scares me!
People really do not understand how sickening Dolphinariums and Aquariums are.
Photo:archive.constantcontact.com
The last two days I have been picking up on some subtle, and some not so subtle, advertisements for Dolphinariums.
*To start… for everyone who is on Facebook you know that games like Farmville and Cityville are very popular! Well, today I was playing Cityville and when I clicked on the application a little advertisement came up telling me to build an aquarium in my city. The picture, for the add, was a cartoon Orca in a tank with a “trainer” giving it a hug. My jaw literally dropped! Unfortunately the game loaded before I could take a picture… but I am surprisingly shocked! Swim with dolphin programs are becoming so popular, they are turning into norms!
*Yesterday I was watching TV and this commercial for a “dolphin experience”, at some Casino, came on!! The people who pay to experience these atrocities, well I will just be blunt, are stupid! You’d have to be a complete idiot to think that a Casino is home for a dolphin! 
I am very frustrated with how popular swim with Dolphin programs are and are becoming! Of course, this is nothing new… It has only been poking at my nerves the last two days.
*What finally sent me over the edge… was this article: Opening April 2, AT&T Dolphin Tales is an incredible new gallery, theater and show, the biggest expansion yet at the world’s largest aquarium.
“Dolphins have arrived at Georgia Aquarium!” and AT&T is funding/sponsoring it! I am disgusted to say that AT&T happens to be my cell phone carrier… and we can’t leave our contract for two years. Please, if you are looking at switching cell services or you are just joining the network… please do not support AT&T!!!
Georgia Aquarium’s new $110 million dolphin exhibit features a 1.8 million gallon habitat for bottlenose dolphins. It includes a lobby with an underwater viewing window, a 1,800-seat theater featuring a live production with dolphins, human actors and singers, and special effects and lighting.
Well… I think I have said about all I can say right now. I’ll let the links speak for themselves! I am hoping that we can start a calling campaign to AT&T, like we did with the embassies when the boats went hunting!!!!
Far, Fast, Deep,
Elora Malama West
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Published by Elora Malama West
Elora Malama West (23) got her start in conservation and environmentalism in the fall of 2010 at age 16, when she accompanied her father, Scott West, to Taiji, Japan for the first Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Cove Guardian campaign. They spent three months on the ground reporting everyday about the plight of the dolphins. While there Elora began this blog, A Teenage Activist: This Girl’s Soapbox and encouraged thousands of people to call the Japanese embassies in their area to protest the dolphin slaughter. Her young age combined with her blog reports brought international attention to what is happening in Taiji, Japan. Elora participated in the first ever meeting between the mayor of Taiji and the SSCS activists opposing the town’s annual slaughter. Currently finishing her Bachelors degree (in Creative Writing and Communications), Elora continues to participate on various projects in an effort to make the world a better place.
RESUME:
2010 Taiji Japan- Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians
Co-founder of the Infinite Patience Campaign in 2010 (90 days on the ground)
Returning Crew member in March 2012
See reports here.
December 2010 – June 2015
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society – Advisory Board Member
Children’s Education and Activities (Resigned)
2012 High School Graduate
2012 SEA SHEPHERD AUSTRALIA
3 Months with Sea Shepherd Australia’s Operation Zero Tolerance to defend the whales in the Australian Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. (Early departure due to illness)
2012 Sea Shepherd Dam Guardian Campaign – Oregon Washington Volunteer.
Graduated with Associate of Arts: Shoreline Community College
2013-2014 Executive Assistant to Paul Watson
Return to school: Junior Year- Studied Media Activism at Burlington College
2014 GRINDSTOP 2014
Volunteer Coordinator for the Sea Shepherd Global campaign
Operation GrindStop 2014.
Accepted with Distinction at Western Washington University
Elora is completing her senior year of college at WWU.
2014-2015 LA TALK RADIO – STATE OF THE OCEANS
Elora acted full time as the Youth Correspondent and Media Activist for the radio show State of the Oceans, on LA Talk Radio for over a year. She now occasionally guest hosts. The show features panelists: Paul Watson, Sia and Shane Barbi, Jani Shultz, and weekly guests. Click here for show website.
2015 Associate Producer on upcoming Peter Jay Brown documentary.
Work with Kids
Various school assembly speeches and grade school class lectures/projects
(In both the United States and Australia)
View all posts by Elora Malama West
So sad isn’t it that imprisonment of sentient beings that should be swimming free in their home, the oceans of the world, must be confined in chemically treated waters away from their pod families and exposed to lights and music which must further stress them all for the gratification of people that “love dolphins”. ~ If you truly love dolphins, then set them free and if they come back to you then… But wait! If you truly loved dolphins, you wouldn’t have imprisoned them and sentenced them to live in an artificial environment under constant stress in the first place. So pay your money, enjoy the view, enjoy the show, but keep in mind these wild creatures are living in a prison because of the money you paid to gawk at them. And what the heck, if they die from the stress, well they can be replaced by more wild dolphins captured from the oceans and torn from their pod families. Poor dolphins, I am so ashamed of what we humans are doing to you!
Anyone who has Swim with Dolphins on their list of goals, please read my article asking you to take this off of your list unless it’s done in the wild, at the will of the dolphins: http://hundredgoals.com/2011/04/01/please-dont-swim-with-dolphins/
and pledge to boycott all captive dolphin programs: http://www.causes.com/causes/598937-pledge-to-boycott-captive-dolphin-programs
Geneva said it so well. Her words need to be said to more people. Unfortunately the sentience of other animals on this planet is called into question by our religions (most), politics (most) and (unbelievably) science. A scientist would be expected to say we shouldn’t assume human reasoning and strategy in other animals. As a scientist I say why should we assume otherwise? Did we not evolve here and share a common ancestry? Are these other animals not just our close cousins? Particularly highly intelligent mammals. Science it self suggests that we are an aquatic ape. Eating fish and shell fish provided the source of the chemicals needed to build bigger brains than the other hominid ape species occupying our species ancestral part of the planet 2-5 million years ago. Our ancestors specialised in a semi-aquatic life style and in fact initially used the sea to spread throughout the world. Historically we hunted with coastal dolphins – particularly Bottle Nose. There are living examples of this on every continent. Unfortunately that is probably one of the reasons why we love dolphins so much (as opposed to say Weasels, Wolves, and Tasmanian Devils). Dogs have had as long an association with our species and look at our relationship with them. Perhaps the ideas of that ex-dolphin hunter in Japan (who now takes people to meet free dolphins and whales) need to be more widely heard in the USA.
I remember going to Sea World or whatever in San Jose about 20 years ago. A couple of dolphins were stuck in a hot tub sized ‘tank’. Yeah it was cool to be able to touch them, but what agony they must have been in. I’ll admit it, I’d love to swim with dolphins, orcas and other whales, but for their sake I’m willing to do it only in my dreams.
Thanx so much Elora! I agree, if we really LOVE Dolphins ( and Orca and other Sea-Mammals) we would want them to be safe, but FREE! :o)
It is truly heartbreaking knowing there are still so many ignorant people out there!! You would think by now enough information has been distributed informing people on the cruel and inhumane practice of captivity…although common sense should dictate, ugh!!!
Being from Atlanta, I have to say I am ashamed of my city. Today looking at a newsletter from my son’s school, I saw a kindergarten field trip to the aquarium. It truly saddens and sickens me. Years ago, the four original belugas at the aquarium all died. You would think they would realize what they are doing to the animals. Money truly is the root of all evil.