Watch: A concerto is premiered in an acquarium

Horrible. A captive animal is a captive animal. Would this be acceptable in front of a cage of lions, tigers, or maybe even a couple of dancing bears?

Pertinent from the Sun Sentinal:-

pregnant sea lion at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., jumped to her death into an empty pool four years ago as workers cleaned the exhibit.

The chlorine level in tanks at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium last year was so high that dolphins couldn’t fully open their eyes and their skin peeled off.

Blisters developed on the eyes of a sea lion kept in a pool that didn’t have enough shade at the North Carolina Zoological Park.

Despite veterinary medical advances and decades of trial and error, marine mammals in parks, aquariums and zoos have continued to get sick and die from such seemingly preventable causes as accidents, contaminated water and stress-related ulcers, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation found. They’ve eaten key chains, sunglasses and rocks. They’ve died while being treated for common ear and teeth infections.

Maria, a bottlenose dolphin caught off Florida in 1984, spent the rest of her life until 2000 on display and performing at the West Edmonton Mall in Canada. She died after swallowing coins thrown into her tank, said mall spokesman Martin Schuldhaus.

“It’s not uncommon,” he said. “It’s happened at a number of places, unfortunately.”

Rocky, an 8-year-old sea lion at the zoological park in Asheboro, N.C. “almost made a complete recovery” from a 1994 root canal but died 11 hours later, according to a death report the zoo provided to the newspaper. “We have no clear explanation for this animal’s unexplained postoperative death.”

A vet examining the sea lion’s body discovered “multiple rocks and a piece of metal” in his stomach, but did not link that to the death, according to the report.

Miami Seaquarium reported to the federal government that its dolphin Pearl died in 2000 of a bleeding ulcer. For months, park officials declined to answer questions about the death or provide records.

“We question the value and good that can come from discussing an event that occurred more than three years ago and see no benefit to provide further information,” said a statement from the Seaquarium.

Last week, after the newspaper told the park it had interviewed a former employee who said the dolphin swallowed a plastic bottle cap, the Seaquarium issued another statement saying Pearl “accidentally ingested one of her favorite toys, a ball.”

The death “was a very tragic and unfortunate loss for the Miami Seaquarium family,” the statement said.

Scientists and marine mammal researchers say a tank should be safer and healthier than the wild, where marine mammals have to hunt for food, receive no medical care and face pollution and predators.

“I would expect they’d live longer because in the wild they rarely would just die of old age,” said Frances Gulland, a veterinarian and scientific adviser to the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. “They’re more likely to get eaten or beaten up. In captivity … I wonder what is the mortality from?”

The Sun-Sentinel examined more than 3,850 deaths of marine mammals in U.S. and foreign facilities in a federal inventory kept by the National Marine Fisheries Service since 1972.

When animals die, the attractions are supposed to perform animal autopsies, known as necropsies, to detail the causes of death. The facilities had to submit these reports to the Fisheries Service until 1994, when Congress, at the urging of the industry, weakened federal oversight.

The newspaper asked 129 facilities housing marine mammals in the United States and abroad for 10 years of the now private necropsy reports. Nine complied.

“I wouldn’t want to send a necropsy report out into the public to be kind of tossed around,” said Jim McBain, SeaWorld’s senior veterinarian. “It has a lot of information in it, most of which the average person doesn’t understand.”

Since the 1994 change, marine attractions need only report a cause of death, but the Fisheries Service lacks the resources to fully enforce reporting.

In nearly 1,500 animal deaths, the cause is blank, unknown or too general to draw conclusions. In more than 100 of those, government records list old age or euthanasia as the cause of death. Dozens more, dating back to 1982, are listed as pending.

Where a specific cause is listed, hundreds appeared preventable.

Zog, a harbor seal, died of “heat stroke” less than six months after arriving at the San Antonio Zoo in 1996 from another park.

“We never lost anything else to heat stroke. I have a feeling there was something else that didn’t show up,” said Executive Director Steve McCusker, who now questions the death finding the zoo reported to the government.

The Aquarium of the Pacific was “devastated by the accidental death” of Brandie, the 12-year-old sea lion who died while her tank was getting cleaned in March 2000, the aquarium said in a recent statement to the newspaper.

“Brandie bolted out to the drained 27-foot deep habitat, perhaps thinking there was water in it, and leaped out before staff could stop her,” the statement said.

The aquarium redesigned its exhibit and now moves animals to a holding area before cleaning.

Other problems have proven more difficult to fix. Federal inspectors have cited eight marine parks, zoos and aquariums for water quality problems in the past three years, records show.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium has been unable to find the right chemical balance in its dolphin tanks for more than two years. Parks commonly use chlorine to disinfect animal wastes and other chemicals to maintain a balance of alkalinity/acidity, just as in backyard pools.

Animals suffer burning eyes, inflamed skin and can even die from fluctuating or excessive chemicals.

In 2001, U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector and veterinarian Sylvia Taylor found potentially “alarming” pH levels, a measure of water acidity, at the Clearwater Aquarium. About three months later, Sunset Sam, a dolphin kept there from the time he was found stranded in Tampa Bay in 1984, died.

The inspector reviewed the aquarium’s records on the death three weeks later, but noted they were incomplete. There is no indication she checked again. Two years later, agency officials told the newspaper they could not say if Sunset Sam’s death was related to water quality.

The dolphin, estimated to be 22, had a history of liver problems and suffered a small wound the day before he died when he crashed into a pool gate, according to a necropsy that could not pinpoint the cause of death. The aquarium reported to the Fisheries Service that the cause was “acute-suspect age related.”

In a routine inspection last August, Taylor again noted that the aquarium’s testing showed excessive chlorine nine times in the previous 10 months. Dolphins Nicholas and Panama “have been observed showing symptoms that are indicative of excessive chlorine levels and/or otherwise detrimental water quality, such as skin sloughing and squinting,” the inspection report says.

Two months after that, dolphin Spirit, a stranded orphaned calf, died.

Spirit, aquarium reports said, had severe pneumonia most likely from a bacterial infection.

Dale Schmidt, the aquarium’s executive director, said neither death was related to water quality. The facility plans improvements to its water filtration system. “It’s a constant effort to upgrade and improve. The No. 1 thing we want to do is take care of animal health.”

During a visit in late February, dolphin Presley hovered at the water’s surface, his eyes fully or partially closed and a white ointment covering irritated skin around his blowhole. Schmidt said the dolphin was healthy.

At Theater of the Sea in Islamorada, waste runoff from a large colony of cats the owners keep may have contaminated the dolphins’ and sea lions’ water. More than 80 felines roamed the grounds during a recent visit.

USDA inspector and veterinarian Mary Moore warned in March 2002, “The numbers of these cats have grown to a level significant enough to be considered a mammalian pest problem with disease transmission a potential concern.”

The family-owned Theater of the Sea agreed to stop taking in cats and to keep those already there out of the marine mammal areas. During another inspection in January 2003, Moore again saw cats near the marine mammals.

Eight dolphins died at Theater of the Sea — half its collection — between 1996 and 2001. The animals ranged in age from 2 to 28.Theater of the Sea declined to answer any questions. The USDA, which throws out inspection records after three years, could not say whether any of the deaths were related to cat waste.

The North Carolina Zoo blamed its water for Sandy the sea lion’s chronic swollen and blistered eyes.

“When [they] ruptured, they were very painful,” said the zoo’s records. “The condition is not uncommon in captive sea lions due to multiple factors, i.e. lack of salt water, direct sunlight (lack of shade), reflection of light from pool bottom, water quality, etc.”

In 1996, a vet operated on the 12-year-old sea lion, trying to give her relief.

“Unfortunately, the animal went into cardiac arrest” and died, the records say. “Poor water quality or lack of adequate shade appear to be good possible causes of these lesions.”

Bob English, a North Carolina vet who has treated sea lions at the zoo, said the eye condition is “the No. 1 problem” among captive sea lions.

“It’s seen in the wild but it’s not nearly as common,” he said.

Bo, a sea lion at the Louisville Zoological Garden, suffered eye problems too.

His zoo record over six years includes more than 75 entries for cloudy eyes, ulcers on his corneas, squinting and pain.

“Holding left eye closed last two days,” the records say. “Right eye still very cloudy. Blinking a lot … Cornea appears to be peeling off … He does not appear to be seeing well … Ate a piece of notebook paper that fell in the pool.”

In April 1997, zoo visitors reported Bo ate a pair of sunglasses and “may also have swallowed a set of keys and a chain,” the records say.

He died eight months later at age 10 while under anesthesia for a root canal.

Parks and zoos have grown serious about trying to keep their sea stars healthy only in the past three decades.

“Prior to that, the attitude was these marine mammals were an expendable commodity,” said Jim Antrim, a retired SeaWorld vice president. “If these animals perished, you’d just go out and replace them. The ease [of replacing them] didn’t drive a great deal of research of what they needed to keep them healthy.”

Marine parks and aquariums now train dolphins and whales to give urine samples and to allow the drawing of blood for testing. Veterinary staff routinely test air samples from the animals’ blowholes to detect signs of illness.

“We always do everything in our power to prevent them from becoming sick through state-of-the-art preventive medicine and top-quality care,” said a statement from the Aquarium of the Pacific in response to questions from the newspaper.

At the aquarium, 40 employees and volunteers care for seven seals and sea lions. A computer monitors water levels and temperature. Staff check the animals every day and report any changes in behavior or eating to the vet, who does weekly routine exams. The aquarium has a lab for additional testing and procedures.

Despite those efforts, four sea lions and a harbor seal have died since the aquarium opened six years ago.

An hour before Obadiah died in 1999, she appeared normal.

Tests showed no cause of death, though the aquarium concluded the nearly 2-year-old harbor seal “suffered from acute cardiopulmonary failure … [that] could not be predicted,” the statement said.

Toni Frohoff, a marine mammal behavioral biologist in Seattle and consultant for animal welfare groups, suspects stress is behind some illnesses and deaths at marine attractions.

“It’s been documented that dolphins in captivity can exhibit self-inflicted trauma, behaviors that are analogous to pacing, and excessive aggressiveness towards people,” she said.

Federal records show 24 marine mammal deaths attributed to stress and another 36 to ulcers, often brought on by stress.

Captive dolphins, Frohoff said, have been observed lingering listlessly at the surface, chewing on concrete until they’ve worn through their teeth and ramming into the sides of their tanks.

“These are not frequently observed behaviors but are associated with boredom and frustration,” she said. “This is behavior you would rarely if ever see in the wild.”

Marine mammals are intelligent and social, said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society of the United States. “They’re captured in the wild or born in captivity. They’re bored. They don’t have to hunt. Their immune systems are weak. Things they’d ordinarily be able to fight off, they get an infection and die.”

Bacteria invaded the dolphins’ habitat at the Oklahoma City Zoo in 1998. Four dolphins died in two years.

“We knew what they had, we just didn’t know where it came from,” said zoo director Bert Castro.

The zoo brought in experts but never determined the source. In 2001, the zoo closed its exhibit and returned the dolphins, leased from a Mississippi company.

SeaWorld never figured out what led to the deaths of three Commerson’s dolphins, a small species noted for their black heads, at its Ohio park over 11 days in March 2000.

“We know the animals died from an inability to hold down or take in enough nutrition to survive,” said McBain, the senior veterinarian. “We still don’t know what actually caused the illness. We wish we understood.”

Howard, a dolphin caught with three others off Florida in the mid 1980s, is now the lone survivor at Canada’s West Edmonton Mall. The dolphin’s health deteriorated after his last companion died in July. He suffered from ulcers and lost weight. Frohoff, brought in by a Canadian animal welfare group to examine Howard, watched the dolphin perform two shows for shoppers during a recent visit.

“The music was reverberating within the mall and the crowd was encouraged to be as loud as they could,” she said. “It’s clearly an unhealthy situation. There’s a reason you don’t see dolphins alone in captive facilities very often. They just don’t survive. I think Howard is a classic case of a dolphin who is suffering because of either commercial interests taking priority or ignorance about dolphin health.”

Mall management declined to discuss Howard. They agreed last fall to move him to another facility with other dolphins, but Howard has not yet been healthy enough to make that trip. Last month, Theater of the Sea applied for a federal permit to bring the dolphin to its facility.

Even the medical advances that have extended the lives of captive marine mammals have taken a toll.

At least 57 have died from medical care or anesthesia, half since 1990, the Sun-Sentinel found.

Splish, a 2-year-old harbor seal at the Aquarium at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas, swallowed a penny that lodged near his stomach in 2000. Aquarium staff gave him mineral oil, but the seal threw up, according to a summary the facility provided to the newspaper.

The aquarium tried to surgically remove the penny. But Splish never recovered from the anesthesia.

“As a result of the death, we have added graphics and signage explaining the dangers associated with animals ingesting foreign objects,” said Greg Whittaker, animal husbandry manager.

The Aquarium of the Pacific sedated Sadie, a 4-year-old sea lion, in January 2003 to “help diagnose a potentially serious eye condition that could have eventually resulted in blindness,” the statement to the newspaper said. She awoke after surgery but then died.

“There is always a risk that any animal could react adversely to anesthesia,” the statement said. “Sadly, Sadie’s death was one of the rare but always potential cases where her body reacted negatively.”

Sophie, a California sea lion at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C., seemed to be improving after nearly four years of abscesses and open wounds on her face and flippers, according to a veterinary log of her care the zoo provided to the newspaper.

In March 2002, the zoo moved Sophie to a pool of different water to see if that would clear up the bumps that had broken out all over her body. The move seemed to work and her appetite improved.

“She ate 15.5 pounds of fish today and seemed as if she would have eaten more,” said a March 23, 2002, entry.

Less than two weeks later, medical records say, Sophie, 15, died “under anesthesia while treating for long standing ear infection.” The zoo veterinarian told the Sun-Sentinel that Sophie had been successfully put under before but at the time of her death was “ill and in pain and, therefore, experiencing some level of stress.”

It was the third anesthesia death of a marine mammal at the zoo in four years, records show.

Michael Hutchins, director of conservation and science at the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, said parks and zoos take animal care seriously if for no other reason than that “these animals are valuable and they are difficult to replace.”

“All living things die,” he added, but some deaths need to be examined.

“Those providing veterinary care do not have the proper training, credentials or certification,” he said. “The lack of appropriate medical screening, quarantine, pest control and sanitary procedures … There’s a clear pattern of preventable mortality as a result of factors controlled by zoo managers, exposures to toxins, extreme temperatures, injuries due to inappropriate social structure, starvation, poor nutrition, poor water quality, etc.

“Those are the things that I would be thinking, well, yeah, this is not a good thing.”

Copyright © 2017, Sun Sentinel
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Deubner is a whore.