Dancing ‘zombie dolphins’ call for answers during Sea World Spooky Nights

Image credit: World Animal Protection / Carol Slater Photography

To highlight this issue, a pod of ‘zombie dolphins’ danced among gravestones bearing the names of some of the dolphins who lost their precious lives at the theme park under unknown circumstances.

Olivia Charlton, Campaign Manager, World Animal Protection said:

Dusty, Tyson and Sinbad are just some of the dolphins who have died at Sea World, and because of their lack of transparency around sicknesses and deaths, we don’t know why they died.

What we do know is that right now as Sea World hosts their annual Spooky Nights event, the dolphins there are exposed to loud noises and vibrations of nearby rides, screams of visitors, loudspeakers, and fireworks.

The lack of transparency over dolphin births, sicknesses and deaths at Sea World casts a dark shadow over the venue which also happens to be the last venue in Australia to continue to breed dolphins in captivity.

This means that a dolphin bred in captivity today may still be in that same barren pool in 2070. That’s 50 years in captivity!

Large crowds gathered to watch the flash mob action. Volunteers also distributed leaflets to several concerned individuals further educating them about the theme park’s practices. Many of them signed our petition calling on the Queensland government to put an end to captive dolphin breeding, shows and interactions.

Sea World is the only venue in Australia that continues to breed dolphins in captivity. Together, we can make this the last generation of dolphins bred in captivity for tourist entertainment.