The problem is - and as can be seen by the animal-rights lobbyists - that no sooner is one claim, i.e. they (marine mammals) die young in captivity is over turned another takes it places. The lobby groups just keep changing the goal posts; it is a well known ploy which makes true debate almost impossible as they are sadly fixed in their ideological position
A recent published analysis of federal data by The Associated Press shows that SeaWorld's annual survival rates for killer whales and some other marine mammals are very much the same or better than their wild counterparts.
However, this data is not that new. These trends have been published in peer review and other scientific publications for as far back as 1988 as regards bottlenose dolphins.
It was inevitable that over the period of time (and a better understanding of the husbandry of these species) captive survivorship would be greater than their wild counterparts which is true for both bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions with killer whales and belugas are not far behind.
The problem is - and as can be seen by the animal-rights lobbyists - that no sooner is one claim, i.e. they (marine mammals) die young in captivity is over turned another takes it places. The lobby groups just keep changing the goal posts; it is a well known ploy which makes true debate almost impossible as they are sadly fixed in their ideological position.
Here is a sample of the published data in chronological order as regards cetacean survivorship - most from peer review or official scientific data e.g. A Review of Dolphinaria.
Klinowska, M. and Brown, S (1986). Mortality Rates in A Review of Dolphinria. Department of the Environment. UK.
DeMaster, D.P. and J.K. Drevenak (1988) Survivorship patterns in three species of captive cetaceans. Marine Mammal Science 4(4): 297-311
Small, R.J. and D.P. DeMaster (1995) Survival of five species of captive marine mammals. Marine Mammal Science 11(2): 209-226
van der Toorn, J. (1997) A Survival guide to survival rates. Marine Mammals: Public Display and Research 3(1): 27-38
Innes, W. S, DeMaster, D.P., Rodriguez, A., and Crowder L.B.( 2005) Survival Rates Of Marine Mammals In Captivity. Duke University/NOAA
Links to the research and some of the papers can be found on one of my web page below:
http://www.marineanimalwelfare.com/survivorship.htm
Further Reading:
