Green Blog: The Dolphin Lover's Conundrum

People who express the greatest concern about protecting Florida?s wild dolphins are often the same ones who break laws about feeding, petting or swimming with the charismatic species, according to a new study commissioned by the National Marine Fisheries Service. And the report suggests that dolphin harassment is on the rise.

In Panama City, Fla., a hot spot for illegal dolphin interactions, more than half of the residents and most tourists surveyed did not know that feeding dolphins is illegal ? or did, but fed them anyway, according to Responsive Management, a polling firm that conducted the study through on-site polling and telephone interviews.

Feeding and harassing wild dolphins was banned in 1992 through an expansion of the Marine Mammals Protection Act because it threatens the animals? health and welfare, said Stacey Horstman, the bottlenose dolphin conservation coordinator for the fisheries service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

?Feeding dolphins upsets their natural role as hunters and makes them vulnerable to boating and fishing-related injuries,? she said. ?Over the past five years, we?ve seen an increase in dolphin strandings where hook and line gear is attached.?

People feed dolphins all kinds of things that are harmful to their systems, from candy bars to buckets of fish spoiling in the hot sun, Ms. Horstman said. ?You name it, we?ve seen it all, from North Carolina to the Gulf Coast of Texas,? she said. ?People have been caught pouring beer down dolphins? blowholes.?

The dolphins most affected by humans are those in bay areas, where the populations tend to be smaller than those in deeper waters, she said. ?When you?re talking about 160 dolphins, they can?t withstand more than one or two losses a year.?

Humans put themselves at risk, too, when they get too close to dolphins, Ms. Horstman said. ?They?re powerful animals that can weigh up to 600 pounds, so swimming or even petting them presents a big danger.?

They can become aggressive when begging for food, and are known to bite when teased, she said.

A dolphin south of Panama City nicknamed Beggar has bitten people 50 times over the 20 years he has sought handouts, Ms. Horstman said. ?But it?s not a dolphin behavior problem,? she said.?It?s a people behavior problem.?

Because dolphins are federally protected, feeding or harassing them carries potential criminal and civil penalties, including steep fines, but enforcement is less the answer than education, Ms. Horstman said. ?There are just too many visitors and they don?t know the law.?

A Don?t Feed Wild Dolphins campaign initiated in 2009 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been little match so far for local tourism ads and romanticized images of dolphins perpetuated by the broader media, said Mark Damian Duda, founder of Responsive Management.

?You?re bombarded in Panama City,? he said, ?but by media, we mean all of the images people see, like TV commercials and movies that show little girls cuddling dolphins.?

Such images can have a powerful effect on human attitudes towards animals, Mr. Duda said, citing a study he did for the Lincoln Park Zoo involving chimpanzees. ?Millions of people watch Super Bowl ads that show chimps in vehicles or sitting behind desks wearing human clothes,? he said.

?Folks who saw chimps in these human-type settings were more likely to think they?re not endangered or that it?s okay to have one as a pet, when, in fact, chimps are extremely endangered in their native Africa, where they?re losing critical habitat,? he said.

Similarly, people see images of trained dolphins at entertainment venues like Sea World and assume that it is reasonable to have close contact in the wild. ?We want people to appreciate dolphins, but as they?re living their lives naturally, and from 50 yards away,? Mr. Duda said.

The Responsive Management survey will be used to help NOAA improve its public outreach efforts, although Mr. Duda and Ms. Horstman admit that convincing people to change is going to be a tough sell, given the profits for coastal business owners.

Forty percent of Panama City businesses surveyed did not support the feeding ban because they do not believe feeding is harmful, Mr. Duda said. ?It was most prevalent among businesses that have been around the longest,? he said. ?That was one of the more disturbing findings, because those people are the opinion leaders.?

Businesses that were less than 13 years old expressed the most concern for dolphins and a willingness to take part in public education efforts, as long as they did not have to pay for the materials. A few are even promoting eco-friendly dolphin tours, said Mr. Duda, who suggests that government-sponsored campaigns could also help change behavior.

?It may take 10 years or more, but they worked with seat belts, and they worked with smoking,? he said.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d1ccb4a29b131fdf1207e38e6afd624e

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