Research Agenda

This section you will find all the research studies I used for my research and how they were all important to the topic I have chose to study about; that is dolphins and their affects on captivity. Down below you will find my annotated bibliography.

Sources of Literature for Behavior, Ecology, and Captivity of Dolphins

Bearzi, Maddalena. “Aspects of the Ecology and Behaviour of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) in Santa Monica Bay, California.” Ocean Conservation, Ocean Conservation, 1 Apr. 2004, www.oceanconservation.org/research/publications_pdf/bottlenose_ecology.pdf.

Maddalena Bearzi is a well known marine biologist who works with dolphins and has conducted research on “Aspects of the Ecology and Behaviour of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) in Santa Monica Bay, California,” in which was published in 2004 on the Ocean Conservation. The reason this research was conducted was to learn how ecology impacts their behavior and in what ways it changes when encountered with other species of dolphins. Here we found that depending on the area more than one species share the same location but have very different behaviors. This article ties into my other two articles because as this one talks about their behaviors regarding ecology the other talks about them with their calves and this will help us learn why else they have a hard transition to captivity.

Bender, Courtney E., et al. “Evidence of Teaching in Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella Frontalis) by Mother Dolphins Foraging in the Presence of Their Calves.” Animal Cognition, vol. 12, no. 1, 2008, pp. 43–53., doi:10.1007/s10071-008-0169-9.

Courtney E. Bender, alongside Denise L. Herzing and David F. Bjorklund, did a research study, “Evidence of Teaching in Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella Frontalis) by Mother Dolphins Foraging in the Presence of Their Calves,” which was published in 2008 on the Animal Cognition. The main idea of this research was to study how mothers are with their calves in the wild and how their behaviors correlate with their feelings. There were many charts that showed the behaviors of each dolphin and this is important for a future paper. We learned about body-orientation movements and cross-generational comparisons. This ties into my other sources I found because we can now learn more about why their behaviors change in captivity and how it correlates with their ecology. Knowing how the animals act in their natural habitat is very important to understand them.

Dima, Ligia D, and Carmen Gauche. “DOLPHINS IN CAPTIVITY: REALITIES AND PERSPECTIVES.” CiteSeerX, 2004, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.691.2179&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Ligia Dima and Carmen Gauche did this research on “Dolphins in Captivity: Realities and Perspectives,” which was published in 2004 by a University. As far as the credibility of these authors could be questioned, not my strongest source, but definitely has great information. The main idea was to discover the pros and cons regarding dolphins in captivity. One important finding was that many dolphins don’t live up to their life expectancy and that should raise an alarm. This is how the behavior and ecology research will help us understand why it is a possibility of these reasons.

Defining the Problem

Barry, Rick O. “Facts About Dolphin Captivity.” Dolphin Project, 2021, www.dolphinproject.com/campaigns/captivity-industry/facts-about-captivity/#:~:text=Prolonged%20confinement%20in%20such%20small,gnawing%20on%20walls%20and%20gates.

Rick O'Barry has been an animal activist for many years and is known for capturing and training five dolphins that came out in the TV series Flipper. He is now the founder of Ricky O'Barry's Dolphin project. On his website you can get so much information as for this part, "Facts about Dolphins," he states on why dolphins should be in the wild not a tank. Here we found that for their emotional state it is bad for them to be in a tank and not in their natural habitats. When time passes they begin to have depression and may began acting differently and in chaotic ways such as banging their heads on a the glass and dragging themselves on the wall. This article will help me in my AP essay because it demonstrates what happens to dolphins in captivity.

Neo, Harvey, and J.Z. Ngiam. “Contesting Captive Cetaceans: (Il)Legal Spaces and the Nature of Dolphins in Urban Singapore.” Social & Cultural Geography, vol. 15, no. 3, 2014, pp. 235–254., doi:10.1080/14649365.2014.882974.

Neo and Ngiam both teach at Singapore and have studies in neurosciences and in their research article, "Contesting Captive Cetaceans: (Il)Legal Spaces and the Nature of Dolphins in Urban Singapore," they talk about the affects dolphins get by getting captive. We learn that it does affect them in ways that we could not imagine. This will help me understand better and tie it to my AP article and it is an academic scholarly source.

Protection, World Animal. “The Problem with Keeping Dolphins in Captivity.” World Animal Protection, 7 May 2019, www.worldanimalprotection.ca/dolphins-captivity.

This website here on the World Animal protection they talk about how captivity can have mnay affects and how they should be in their natural habitats. We learn that statistically there are more dolphins deaths than when they are in the wild. They have a shorter life span in captivity and are forced to go in endless circles. Another great source to help me add more facts about this issue.

Advocating Solutions

Brian , Skerry. “The Solution.” Cetacean Awareness, 2021, www.cetaceanawareness.com/the-solution.html.

This article written by the Cetacean Awareness discusses some solution that we people can take in order to stop cetacean captivity. Whale and dolphin captivity is a huge problem in our world where these animals suffer being in tanks. Those tanks are not their home. They suggest to stop going to marine parks in order for them to release the animals we have to make them run out of money. Damaging this they would have no use for the animals to be left in tanks. This article correlates with my problem and as well with my other following article regarding solutions.

O'Barry , Rick. “To Free A Dolphin – A Step-by-Step Guide to Dolphin Activism.” Dolphin Project, 1970, www.dolphinproject.com/take-action/to-free-a-dolphin-a-step-by-step-guide-to-dolphin-activism/.

Rick O'Barry was a well known dolphins trainer who trained dolphins in the 1960's but soon after realized he did not want to be part of it anymore. Since then he has made a organization to combat those who keep dolphins in captivity. In this article he talks about the steps we need to take in order to stop these corporations in taking these cetaceans into captivity. This correlates with my other article since they as well give solutions on how to combat this dilemma.

WDC, USA. “End Captivity.” Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA, 14 Jan. 2020, us.whales.org/our-4-goals/end-captivity/.

In this article the organization talks about how captivity affects them and as well as how we can help them. They gave us many solutions on how to stop people from capturing these animals. This comes from an organization in which help cetaceans, which gives it more creditbility since they focus on these species. The great thing is that this article helps me fortify my argument that dolphins belong in the wild. Not in tanks.