76 



It is significant to note that when asked to compare the educational value and 

 overall personal impact of their Dolphin Quest experience with their previous oppor- 

 tunities to experience dolphins, 92.5 percent saia that their Dolphin Quest experi- 

 ence had greater educational value and personal impact than books or magazuies, 

 89.2 percent said the Dolphin Quest experience was greater than nature movies or 

 TV and 89.5 percent believe the Dolphin Quest experience has greater educational 

 value and personal impact than even observation in the wild. 99.6 percent rec- 

 ommend that interactive programs continue as a means to increase public sensitiv- 

 ity and appreciation of dolphins and dolphin concerns. Fully 99.3 percent believe 

 that an interactive experience such as Dolphin Quest will inspire people to actively 

 support environmental issues. 



Tnese statistics provide overwhelming evidence that the emotional connection be- 

 tween the visitor and the dolphin in an interactive experience provides an excellent 

 foundation for changing public attitudes about our marine environment resulting in 

 a strong conmiitment to the preservation of our marine resources. 



Question. Recently there nas been media coverage of an incident at a Florida 

 swim program, where a male dolphin allegedly harassed a swim participant, is this 

 facility a member of the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums? Is the 

 reported behavior of the dolphin a common occurence at swim facilities? Has this 

 ever happened at the Dolphin Quest program and if not, why not? Do you consider 

 the Dolphin Quest program to be safer 



Answer. The incident referred to happened at a facility that is neither an Alliance 

 or AAZPA member. This has never happened at either of the two Alliance facilities 

 having SWTD programs. The male dolphins used in the Alliance programs have 

 never displayea sexual aggression toward a participant in a swim encounter. This 

 type of behavior is not acceptable at the Alliance facilities and our dolphin and staff 

 training programs have effectively prevented it from happening. 



The dolphin behavior you are describing is learned and is self reinforcing if it is 

 allowed to continue. Using modem training techniques based on positive reinforce- 

 ment dolphins can be trained to engage only in appropriate behavior when interact- 

 ing with humans. Our facilities train our dolphins. The example of improper dolphin 

 behavior you referenced occurred at a tacility which chooses to not train its dol- 

 phins. 



The two Alliance members operating SWTD facilities take the safety of their pro- 

 grams very seriously. There has never been an injury to a participant in these pro- 

 grams due to an aggressive act by the dolphins. Since the beginning of the SWTD 

 programs at The Dolphin Research Center and Dolphin Quest over 76,000 people 

 nave participated in their SWTD programs. There have been only five accidental in- 

 juries, including such minor injuries as a superficial scratch. This represents an in- 

 jury rate of 0.00006. The safety of the participants is ensured by the fact that each 

 dolphin is individually evaluated for behavioral compatibility before inclusion in a 

 SWTD session and every human-dolphin interaction is carefully supervised by high- 

 ly experienced, professional marine mammal behaviorists. 



Another area of Question regarding swim programs has been disease transmission 

 from humans to dolphins. The focus, raised by this, was over possible transmission 

 of respiratory infections from people to dolphins. There has not been one incident 

 of disease transmission from humans to dolphins in over 41,000 SWTD human/dol- 

 phin interactions since our program began in 1988. To investigate the possibility of 

 this further we have undertaken a retrospective study of Dolphin Quest's res- 



{)iratory monitoring program. This study is attached here and clearly reveals the 

 ack of respiratory disease transmission. Furthermore, there has not been one injury 

 to a dolphin or a single case of stress induced behavioral change or illness in smy 

 of our dolphins. In fact, the dolphins are thriving and seem to enjoy the interactive 

 programs as much as the human participants. 



A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF BOTTLENOSED DOLPHINS PARTICIPATING IN SWTD PRO- 

 GRAMS SHOWING AN OVERALL ABSENCE OF CLINICAL AND SUBCLINICAL RESPIRATORY 

 DISEASE 



(Sweeney, J.C., L.R. Stone, A.W. Krames and J.M. Hay, Dolphin Quest, Inc.) 



INTRODUCTION 



One concern with respect to Swim-With-The-Dolphin programs, where casual con- 

 tact between the dolphins and humans is allowed, is that Bottlenosed dolphins par- 

 ticipating in such programs are vulnerable to health risks. At issue is the potential 

 transmission of respiratory diseases from participating humans to the dolphins. The 

 medical literature is notably void of reference to such disease transmission, yet to 



