第２０回Online workshop報告（６月１９日）

○Should we have dolphins in the aquariums?:

A baby common bottlenose dolphin was born in the Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise on June 3rd.

Nowadays, dolphin breeding is quite common in Japan, however, the situation was different in the past. What drove the dolphin breeding research forward in recent years?

In 2015, Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) prohibited the hunting of natural dolphins in response to the international criticism over the dolphin hunting tradition (Japanese drive fishery) in Taiji, Wakayama. JAZA demanded member aquariums not to purchase dolphins caught by Japanese drive fishery. The aquariums that seceded from JAZA were incorporated into Japan Association for Cetacean Research (JACRE) and a new organization, Japan Aquarium Association (JAA) was established from JACRE in 2020. In contrast to JAZA, JAA allows member aquariums to purchase wild-caught dolphins. During the period of purchase ban of wild-caught dolphins, research on domestic breeding of dolphins was encouraged as it was the only solution to increase the number of dolphins in the domestic aquariums.

The world largest association for zoo and aquariums, WAZA once suspended the membership of JAZA as Japanese member aquariums were acquiring dolphins caught by drive fishery. However, WAZA is not against keeping and breeding marine mammals (cetaceans) itself as it released a statement to stop the vote for Cetacean ban in France (1). WAZA mentions that keeping cetaceans in the aquariums has benefits such as accumulation of research and conservation of the species. On the other hand, many animal activists mention that captivating highly intellectual animals are unethical from the standpoint of animal welfare (2). If you open the internet, most of the pages are organized by animal rights groups criticizing dolphin captivity.  So, do we need dolphins in aquariums in the future?  

Q1. Would you be disappointed if there are no dolphins in the aquariums? Why or why not?

Q2. Is teaching animals tricks and representing them in amusement shows unethical in the 21st century? Why or why not?

Q3. Do you think that intellectual animals should be free from captivity? How about other animal species which are assumed to be less intellectual?

Reference (option reading)

(1)  https://www.waza.org/news/waza-statement-on-france-cetacean-legislation/

(2)  https://www.peta.org/teachkind/lesson-plans-activities/debate-kit-marine-mammal-captivity/