Captive dolphin photography

Another wildlife photography forum I watch and sometime post on has just had a captive dolphin picture posted. This got me thinking. Personally I am totally against the keeping of large sea animals - dolphins, whales, whalesharks and mantas in captivity. I would therefore never even think about photographing them - unless it was to show their suffering in captivity.

But what do others think about this. Ok perhaps it is not underwater photography as such, but Do you think that this type of photography has a role to play in wildlife photography?

Fishboy

It's a very contentious issue. My personal feeling is similar to yours. Nothing like running into a wild animal at sea vs the sure thing (to me, it's boring) of a captured animal. Let's be real about it however. Zoos and aquariums do educate people. When anyone takes a child to an aquarium or zoo, they'll understand how much it does help to have real live specimens to show them. Sure, my god daughter got to swim with 500 wild dolphins instead of going to sea world to swim with 1 but that's cos her padrino is a cool guy

I've never been a fan of animal shows for entertainment, but that's just me. If I want entertainment, I can go watch Cirque Du Soleil. At least those animals do those tricks for money.

Let's also be realistic in that all these captured animal viewing are money making ventures. They pay for the capture of wild animals and train them. It's a pretty big industry. Some aquariums claim their animals were born in captivity so it's better than catching them from the wild. The pretense of 'research' of captive animals is a bit dubious other than physiological studies, which I'm sure there are enough dead by catch around to work on. Then again Jane Goodall may have deciphered the chimpanzee lingo and use of tools, but how many would've thought they'd be able to use sign language and use keyboards without captured animals? In short, I draw the line at entertainment and profit but will tolerate scientific endeavors.

There are many places offering swimming with captured animals. Japan does the whalesharks, mola mola and dolphins. Dolphinariums worldwide offer swimalongs. Even Belugas are available in Russia. Does it have a role to play? Sure, for lazy people who want a shot of something and can't be bothered to go on location and wait, it's great!

when you live on an island 7 by 21 miles big ... and the government approves 3 dolphinariums (as they call them) ... the dolphins are all being imported so they arent local animals anyway you start to feel very overwhelmed by stupid people around you.

these have been thought up by people wanting to make money also, however all the people who will want to see it will be the 3 or 5 day cruise ship tours that come here. Unfortunately they will already have been to either mexico or jamiaca where they have these already so why would they see ours.

As for taking photos in or at one .. if that was my only chance of seeing a dolphin then why not. not everyone is as lucky as we are to get to dive in places where they swim free !

So yes although most guests will be lazy people .. some may just not have any other chance to see these types of creatures .. i am not saying it's right .. i'm not really saying it's wrong .. its just the way capitalism works.