When I was about 11 years old I went on a family holiday to the Gold Coast.
I was allowed to bring a friend with me and it was all very exciting. We were going to do the whole shebang, swimming at the beach, getting our hair braided on Cavill Ave, screaming our way through the theme-parks. All of it. But there was one activity that had me beside myself with anticipation.
Swimming with dolphins at Sea World.
It was on my bucket-list. I’m not exactly sure where or how I came to know what a bucket-list was at that age, but I knew the dolphins were on it. When the day finally arrived my friend and I couldn’t have been more excited. We awoke (very early) after going to bed (very late), slathered ourselves in sunscreen-at my mother’s insistence, and popped on our matching rashies. We pulled up at Sea World as its gates opened. I had to be early. I wasn’t missing this for anything.
We arrived at the Meet The Dolphin area and they fitted us with our life vests. The handlers briefed us on where we should pat the dolphins and what areas were best to avoid both for the animal’s comfort and for our safety. Then it was time. We waded into the shallows of the artificial beach and up he swam. I don’t remember his name, but I remember shaking a lot. I stroked his nose and his side, and at the handler’s instruction he presented me his fin for a gentlemanly handshake. A whistle was blown and he rolled onto his back, hesitantly I ran my hands along his slippery belly.
“He likes you,” the handler said. I giggled nervously.
“He does, don’t you?”
And he rolled over again, nodding his head in agreement. I’m sure there was some hand gesture or command given to prompt this exchange but I didn’t notice, all I knew was I had a new friend. And he was a freakin’ DOLPHIN!
I knelt in the sand next to my new found pal and put my right arm across his back.
“Say cheese!”
I still have that photo, somewhere. It no longer takes pride of place on a shelf but I’ve still got it. It’s in storage, in a box of my ‘child-hood treasures’, the things I want to hold onto so that one day I can pull out to show my kids.
Only, I’m not sure I was to do that anymore.
After years of criticism and diminished attendance rates Sea World Entertainment Inc have said they are going to put an end to their Orca breeding programs and aim to phase out the entertainment based exhibition of these enourmous mammals all together.
“Times have changed, and we are changing with them,” reads a statement on Sea World’s website
“The killer whales currently in our care will be the last generation of killer whales at Sea World. The company will end all orca breeding as of today.”
It’s a move that has been a long time coming.
But according to Nicole Beynon, the head of campaigns at World Animal Protection, there is still an incredibly long way to go.
“It is good news … but it is still desperately sad to consider the daily life of misery and confinement these beautiful and sentient animals suffer at this ‘entertainment’ parks,” she told ABC.
When handler Dawn Brancheau was killed by an orca in Sea World Florida’s Shamu Stadium in 2010 I was horrified. I’d been to see shows like that. I’d clapped and whooped and squealed with delight as the tail of an impossibly large animal splashed us with an impossibly big wave.
In 2013, I watched Blackfish and saw all the footage surrounding the Peta and World Animal Protection campaigns against Sea World and I became increasingly uncomfortable with my experience, an experience I had previously held very dear to my heart.
I don’t doubt that Sea World’s decision to phase out it’s breeding and entertainment programs is the right one. Nicole Beynon told the ABC, “We must end this terrible trend of using animals for entertainment and all of these of parks and attractions should stop exploiting those animals already in their possession for entertainment.”
And I absolutely agree. I completely support the humane and ethical treatment of all animals, including these beautiful large marine mammals, but I am still grieving the loss of my experience.
Instead of reminiscing about the fact that I went swimming with dolphins, now I kind of just feel like and arsehole.
