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nally been brought to light? Is it a recurring thing? Is it as normal 

 as anybody's dog at home or something, or what? 



Dr. Stone. Well, that is, in fact, not an inappropriate compari- 

 son. The behavior that you are referring to, the sexual harassment, 

 has happened at only one facility out of the four facilities, and it 

 is has happened in the only facility that chooses not to train, condi- 

 tion, or direct its dolphins behavior. And as I said, we feel that is 

 totally inappropriate. There is no reason why a dolphin would take 

 a sexual activity toward a person unless it is, in fact, trained to do 

 so through natural reinforcement. In other words, it tries new be- 

 haviors and if it is reinforced and allowed to continue they are, in 

 effect, taught that behavior. 



Dr. Rose. Senator Kerry. 



Senator Kerry. Yes. 



Dr. Rose. I would like to point out that there has been a lack 

 of information here. Dolphin Quest has lost two of six dolphins. 

 They have had two dolphins die. And I would also like to say 



Senator Kerry. But from what? 



Dr. Stone. That is well published, if you are current with the lit- 

 erature. It is well known that our two dolphins died, and it was 

 two out of eight, died from consuming biotoxins that were present 

 in the natural reef fish off the coast of Hawaii. That has been pub- 

 lished in the peer-reviewed literature and has contributed to re- 

 search which we have funded looking at the currents of biotoxins 

 in natural reef fishes off the coast of Hawaii. It had absolutely 

 nothing to do with interactions with people. 



Dr. Rose. I would also like to — just one more thing is that 11 

 years ago I was participating in a research project in Hawaii, and 

 it was a language acquisition project with two bottle-nose dolphins. 

 And there were times when they allowed the volunteers to interact 

 recreationally with these animals. They were supervised by several 

 trainers and these animals were trained animals, they were being 

 used in this research project. 



And I only did it once because the animals decided that — I guess 

 they just were not in the mood for me to be in the tank at the time. 

 I was struck by a tail, my mask flew off, and bruised the bridge 

 of my nose. Then the other animal raked me and I still have a scar 

 from that rake, and then the first animal smashed me in the rib 

 cage with its snout and then backed off because the trainers who 

 were supervising all of this, which happened in a flash, came to my 

 rescue, but nearly broke a rib. And so even with supervision, this 

 all happened to me in a flash. And I do not blame the dolphins. 



Senator Kerry. But let me just — I understand what you are say- 

 ing, but the record is pretty strong that if you have had 



Dr. Rose. But it can happen. 



Dr. Stone. May I answer please. Those dolphins — and I know 

 the dolphins you are referring to — are not trained or conditioned 

 for interactive or in water activities. Those are research animals 

 that are trained for acoustic and language research, and there is 

 an entirely different process involved in conditioning animals, one 

 that is well documented now and is very successfully undertaken 

 by people that are experienced in directing interactive proceedings. 

 And that would be part of the standards for the continuation of 



