Image: Pixabay, Claudia14
Who doesn’t dream of retiring from their day job and relocating to the Caribbean? Well, soon the dolphins at the National Aquarium in Baltimore will get to do just that.
This week, the National Aquarium announced that the eight dolphins involved in its decades-long research program would be retired from life at the Aquarium and relocated to a yet-to-be-determined ocean sanctuary. The sanctuary will be the first of its kind.
The move comes after years of changes to policy regarding the intelligent sea mammals. In 1993, the Aquarium pledged to stop bringing wild dolphins to the facility. In 2012, it ceased doing dolphin performances. The idea of releasing the pod to a sanctuary has been brewing since 2014.
“We now know more about dolphins and their care, and we believe that the National Aquarium is uniquely positioned to use that knowledge to implement positive change,” said John Racanelli, the aquarium’s chief executive officer. “This is the right time to move forward with the dolphin sanctuary.”
The sanctuary will take time to set up, but the Aquarium expects to move the dolphins there by 2020. They are considering sites in Florida and the Caribbean where the dolphins can live in a protected area, with staff nearby to assist them. All but one of the dolphins were born in captivity, so they are not suited to being released into the wild.
As a Maryland resident and fan of the National Aquarium, I’ll miss visiting the dolphins. However, I can’t dispute that these intelligent creatures deserve a better habitat than an indoor tank. I’ll look forward to hearing about the progress of the move!
