Moonshine, the Pantropical spotted dolphin at Mote Marine Laboratory, has died. A necropsy will be performed to confirm the cause of death.
Moonshines page on Mote. It has seems to to have turned into his obituary. I hope they find a species that is as interesting as he was to replace him, if one could possibly replace someone as wonderful as he was. Moonshine the Dolphin | Exhibits | Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium
The still under construction Primorsky Aquarium has been hit with allegations of animal abuse, with critics citing poor conditions and animal deaths in the past three years of construction, including a dolphin and a beluga. Many of the claims are coming from a group of anonymous employees, though the facility director confirmed the animal deaths, but denies wrongdoing or negligence. The Russian Academy of Sciences has assured the Environmental Prosecutor's Office that there are no problems with the facility, so an investigation will not be done.
Oh, yeah, Ceta-Base is the best site if you need info on captive cetaceans. The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi rescued two stranded pygmy killer whales about a month ago. They're still recovering. It's an incredible case because this species is rarely seen in general, and to my knowledge, this is the first time that two have stranded together.
from their Facebook it looks like they are still there because they post photos of them still (albeit with no information attached as to the whales' current status). It appears you can only visit the place on a booked tour, so your best bet would be to ask about the whales when booking. Presumably they would give you a yes/no answer.
Still there, still undergoing rehabilitation. Last time I checked, there was no way to see them. (they mentioned it somewhere on their Facebook page) They have a "discovery center" and several marine animals, but from what I can find the area with the whales isn't part of the tour. I do wish there were more updates, I'm quite interested in this. Anyway. So here's something pretty horrible... ??????24 - ? ?????????? ?????? ?? ??????? ????? ????? ????????? https://news.mail.ru/incident/24106030/ Articles are in Russian, so I had to read with Google translate. Some bottlenose dolphins were abandoned in a makeshift pool in a farm silo. They were identified as Delfa and Zeus, two dolphins illegally captured from the Black Sea and used in shows. I wonder what's going to happen to them...
I would assume that a good chunk of people going on dolphin boat tours are seeking to view wild dolphins. Having trained captive dolphins would kind of defeat the purpose...
Yes, but wild Dolphins don't necessarily cooperate with tour operators intentions and besides, the public has a specific idea of what to expect from Dolphins, seeing how wild ones really act leave them feeling disappointed.
I don't know for sure, however I know that SeaWorld Orlando has at least five if you group it together with Aquatica and Discovery Cove (at least 5 species: Bottlenose Dolphin, Short Finned Pilot Whale, Killer Whale, Beluga Whale, and Commerson's Dolphin, plus one Common/Bottlenose Hybrid, not including whoever might be in rescue/rehab at any given time) but I'm not sure that there aren't facilities in Asia with more species.
Japan takes the cake for cetacean species. Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium houses Pacific and Indo Pacific Bottlenose, Rough Toothed, Pantropical Spotted, and Pacific White Sided Dolphin, and Pseudorca, for 6 species total. Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise houses Pacific Bottlenose, Pacific White Sided, Commerson's, Pseudorca, Short Finned Pilot Whale, and Beluga, also for 6 species. Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China also is a powerhouse, housing Pacific Bottlenose, Pacific White Sided, Indo-Pacific Bottlenose, Indo-Pacific Humpback, Pantropical Spotted, Pseudorca, Beluga, and Orca for a whopping 8 different species! In North America, the Seaworlds and Vancouver Aquarium have the most variety.
