Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums

ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS 2006

Introduction

The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums is aninternational association of marine life parks, aquariums, zoos,research facilities, and professional organizations dedicated to thehighest standards of care for marine mammals and to theirconservation in the wild through public education, scientificstudy, and wildlife presentations.

Collectively, the Alliance and its membership represent the greatest body of experience andknowledge with respect to marine mammal husbandry. Over 40 million children and adults visitAlliance member zoos and aquariums each year. Alliance members play unique, unrivaled roles in marine mammaleducation, research, conservation, and stranding networks, for example, they:

Enhance public appreciation for the need to conserve and protect marine mammals and their ocean homes.
Create opportunities for visitors to see dolphins and other marine mammals up close — experiences that instill an awareness of ecological and conservation issues; create respect and concern for these animals and their habitats; and inspire a strong, active commitment to marine mammal conservation. They provide educational information through presentations, interactions with the animals, graphics, narration, Web sites, teacher workshops, school visits, and special education programs. Marine mammal education at our parks translates into conservation awareness and conservation action that benefits marine mammals and their ocean environment.
Support scientific study that benefits all marine mammals. In fact, a great deal of what is known about dolphin and marine mammal health care, physiology, reproductive biology, and intelligence has been learned through scientific studies in marine life parks over the last 40 years. Animals in the wild directly benefit from knowledge gained from animals in human care.
Participate in programs that respond to, rescue, restore to health, and release marine mammals that have stranded on coastlines throughout the world. Members volunteer for the government programs to help stranded sick, injured, or orphaned marine mammals, and often absorb the costs. The accumulated knowledge, collective experience, and resources of Alliance member facilities are the primary factors in successful rehabilitation efforts of dolphins and whales.

Alliance members also enjoy overwhelming public support because of the work we do. A Harris Interactive poll, conducted for the Alliance in 2005, demonstrates a phenomenal awareness and support for the unique activities of zoological parks and aquariums. Results show that the public is nearly unanimous in its acclaim for the educational, research, and stranding programs of marine life parks, zoos, and aquariums.

Science and Conservation: Member Priorities

International news article headlines in 2006 set a gloomy tone for the future of marine mammals worldwide. A Yahoo! News article - “Scientists Fret over Starving and Missing Whales” – expressed Canadian researchers’ concern about gray whales that are not returning to their normal summer habitat. Agence France Presse covered a call by the United Nations for stricter measures to protect dolphins, saying more than two-thirds of them face growing threats to their survival - “New Measures Urged to Protect Dolphins.” United Press International reported killer whales have passed the polar bear to become the most contaminated mammal in the Arctic - “Orcas most polluted Arctic mammal.” And, most disconcerting, China’s Baiji River dolphin is now considered functionally extinct - “Yangtze kills off dolphins” - Associated Press.

Alliance members have invested millions of dollars in field research supporting marine mammal species survival in the wild. Field research programs include studies of behavior, population biology, and health, ecological relationships, and the impact of environmental contaminants. Long-term studies funded by Alliance members of in-shore, wild marine mammal populations provide scientists with opportunities to measure contaminant exposure, monitor health and immune responses of individual animals, and study population-level trends. In addition, research with marine mammals in zoological parks and aquariums provides scientists with unparalleled opportunities to study marine mammal biology, ecology, and behavior in an accessible, controlled setting. These studies have led to improvements in diagnosing and treating diseases; tests for toxic substances and their effects on wild marine mammals; and advancements in diet, vitamin supplementation, and neonatal feeding that have benefits for young stranded or orphaned animals. (For a sampling of the conservation research being conducted by Alliance members, see pages 5 and 6.)

Alliance Co-Sponsors International Marine Mammal Journal

At the invitation of the European Association for Aquatic Mammals (EAAM), the Alliance is now a co-sponsor of Aquatic Mammals, the oldest international scientific, peer-reviewed marine mammal journal. The journal has been supported by EAAM since 1972. Aquatic Mammals accepts a variety of scientific papers on the care, conservation, medicine, and science of marine mammals. Submissions for publication in the well-respected journal continue to increase significantly each year. The Alliance is proud to join EAAM in supporting the journal and to demonstrate further our members’ strong commitment to worldwide marine mammal research. Dr. Jeanette Thomas of Western Illinois University is the editor and Kathleen Dudzinski of Mystic Aquarium the co-editor. Alliance Research Committee Co-Chair Dan Odell (Hubbs- SeaWorld Research Institute) has been named to the publication’s editorial board.

Alliance Fights to Protect Marine Mammals in the Wild From Negative Human Interactions

There is no shortage of studies validating that disruption of marine mammals’ natural behaviors in the wild – be it by feeding the animals, swimming with them, or approaching them closely with boats – has a very negative impact on the health and well-being of the animals. Recent studies in Western Australia document a significant decline in bottlenose dolphin abundance resulting from long-term exposure to tour operations.

Alliance members are committed to fight for the well-being of marine animals in the wild. We have developed a widely distributed Wildlife Watching Guide for the public that members use to educate their guests from around the world about the harm caused by swimming with and/or feeding the animals in the wild. The U.S. government awarded the Alliance a Certificate of Appreciation for assistance with its education and outreach efforts to protect marine mammals in the wild from feeding and harassment by the public.

In 2006, the U.S. government continued to look for avenues to protect spinner dolphins in Hawaii citing a study conducted at Oahu’s Makau Beach that found the dolphins departed their resting bay earlier and spent shorter periods of time diving when swimmers were in the area. The Alliance submitted comments to the U.S. government urging that it broaden the approach and promulgate regulations to protect all marine mammals in U.S. waters from harassment.

Fisheries Interactions

Canada’s Vancouver Aquarium hosted an international symposium in October 2006 on fisheries depredation - raiding of hook and line fisheries by whales. Researchers in attendance agreed that the problem with killer whales and sperm whales is growing around the world. Research projects resulting from the symposium will investigate acoustic signals, changing the timing and synchronicity of fishing, and fishing with pots instead of long lines. The symposium's convener, Lance Barrett-Lennard, concluded that the best immediate advice for fishermen is to enforce a strict “do not reward” policy by stopping their activities as soon as whales approach their vessels.

Entanglement

The U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) does not provide authority for stranding network participants to come to the rescue of marine mammals that have become victims of entanglement in fishing gear and other materials. The Alliance supported an amendment to the 2006 MMPA that rectifies this omission in the law – a bill that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The Senate took no action in 2006.

Disney’s delightful characters from its 1989 movie, The Little Mermaid, are featured in a new, public service advertising (PSA) campaign designed to encourage people to protect animals and the oceans from the devastation of marine debris. The press release on the campaign noted that “thousands of seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins and sea turtles become entangled in plastic debris or in lost and discarded fishing lines and nets every year.” The PSA was produced in partnership by the Walt Disney Studios’ Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment Division, the Advertising Council, Environmental Defense, and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service.

Stranded Marine Mammals: Saving Them One by One

Alliance member marine life parks, aquariums, and zoos are active participants in programs to save stranded sick, injured, or orphaned marine mammals either by voluntarily participating in government stranding networks or housing non-releasable animals. Baseline data collected from blood, fecal, and urine testing at Alliance member facilities allows veterinarians to diagnose diseases in stranded marine mammals and save the lives of many stranded sick and injured animals. Alliance member support stranding programs in several ways:

The accumulated knowledge, collective experience, and resources of Alliance facilities are the primary factors in successful rehabilitation efforts of whales and dolphins. Gulf World Marine Park, which has served as the Unusual Mortality Event area coordinator for a number of mass strandings in the U.S. Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Network, has created a home for seven non-releasable rough-toothed dolphins after they stranded in the southeast region – animals that are not commonly held in zoological parks and aquariums.

With extensive expertise with marine mammal care, Alliance members are part of government health assessment teams. Members joined the U.S. government in a project to assess the health of bottlenose dolphins in and around the Florida Panhandle. It was part of an extensive investigation in the causes of three dolphin Unusual Mortality Events that have occurred from 1999 to 2006.

The Alliance Stranding Committee, chaired by Mark Swingle (Virginia Aquarium), surveyed member facilities this year and found that members responded to almost 3,000 calls for help involving stranded marine mammals between 2001 and 2005. The survey also asked about the space available for both rehabilitation and long-term care for numerous marine mammal species, which will assist governments in identifying facilities that have experience with various species and help them find homes for non-releasable animals.

The significant financial and staff commitments of Alliance member facilities that help stranded animals are acknowledged by the governments with which they are affiliated. For example, in 2006, the Dolphin Research Center received a Manatee Conservation Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in recognition of the facility’s long involvement in manatee assessment and rescue.

The Alliance also commented on U.S. draft stranding documents, providing recommendations based on the experience of the members that will assure the best care for the stranded animals that need to be nursed back to health and released.

According to the Harris poll, the public appreciates the millions of dollars Alliance members spend caring for stranded animals. The poll asked if respondents believed that it was important to rescue, medically treat, and rehabilitate injured wild animals and marine mammals so that they can be returned to the wild. A resounding 94 percent said yes. The public also strongly supports (95 percent) placing non-releasable animals into caring marine life parks, aquariums, and zoos rather than euthanizing them. These are animals governments believe would not survive if released to the wild.

The Core Mission: Education

The mission of educational programming at all Alliance member parks and aquariums is to enhance appreciation for and understanding of marine mammals and their ecosystems using our unique marine mammal resources to instill in those who visit us an awareness of ecological and conservation issues and a respect and caring for these animals and their environment. This respect engenders in the public a strong, active commitment to marine mammal conservation.

Very detailed Standards and Guidelines developed by the Alliance Education Committee assure that members meet these core goals to:

provide opportunities for visitors to expand their knowledge about marine mammal biology and natural history;

promote awareness of and sensitivity toward the marine environment and the relationships of marine biology and natural environments;

present information on marine conservation issues; and

be available as marine science and environmental information resources to interested citizens, local schools, community groups, and educators.

Committee Co-Chairs Diane Sweeney (Dolphin Quest) and Joy Wolf (SeaWorld) have been instrumental in hosting annual professional development seminars for members to assure that educators have the tools and information to best serve the public and the animals.

In 2006, the co-chairs met with the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality, which Congress charged with implementing recommendations of two commission reports on the dire state of the oceans. Alliance members developed and participated in a public relations program during the U.S. Year of the Ocean in the mid-1990s. Ocean curriculum is currently taught. Live marine mammals are an exceptional vehicle for promoting ocean education messages to the public.

The Council co-sponsored the Conference on Ocean Literacy, held in Washington, DC, in June, in which the Alliance Education Committee co-chairs participated. Alliance educators are planning a unified national oceans campaign. Dolphin Quest and the Dolphin Research Center have developed curriculum that targets Ocean Literacy campaign messages.

Outstanding education activities this year include a new book written by Mystic Aquarium’s Dr. Bob Ballard called 50 Ways to Save the Ocean. Brookfield Zoo received a grant to expand its Youth Conservation and Science Leadership Program, leveraging strong relations in the communities it serves and encouraging scientific aptitude and an enduring interest in conservation among young people. Mystic received a grant to enhance its seal rescue clinic, which will include an education message that illustrates the connections between stranded seals and ocean conditions. The Dolphin Research Center was the recipient of a Fuller Foundation grant to host deaf and hearing impaired students to attend their educational “Dolphin Lab.”

Alliance Member Conservation Research Projects Include:

The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which has studied the behavior, population biology, health, and ecological relationships of resident communities of bottlenose dolphins along the central west coast of Florida for 37 years and recently studied the impact of environmental contaminants and human interactions on dolphins. The Brookfield Zoo/Chicago Zoological Society has supported the program since 1989 with grants from Dolphin Quest and the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, among others.

Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute’s efforts, along with SeaWorld staff, to develop a sonarbased “manatee finder” to warn boaters about an animal’s location.

The first study of the Caribbean manatee in Mexico by Dolphin Discovery, with sampling to evaluate the health of individual animals and provide a genetic analysis of the species.

A six-week expedition searching for Baiji in China’s Yangtze River, a research project that resulted in the Baiji being deemed functionally extinct. Alliance members Ocean Park Hong Kong and SeaWorld financially supported and participated in the expedition.

Ocean Park Hong Kong’s and its Foundation’s conservation status studies of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, Yangtze river dolphins, coastal small cetaceans, the river dolphins of the Indian Subcontinent, and, more recently, the dugongs of South East Asia and Southern China.

Research by Dolphin Connection and Mote Marine Laboratory calibrating the cortisol levels of bottlenose dolphins in non-stressful situations so scientists can compare the levels to wild dolphins encircled by purse seine nets used for tuna fishing in eastern tropical Pacific.

A study by Dolphin Quest examining the dynamics of mother-calf swimming to help understand the slower than expected recovery of dolphin populations in the Eastern Tropical Pacific and potential links to mother-calf separations related to the tuna purse seine fishery.

Mystic Aquarium’s study of the magnitude of Brucella in marine mammals in the wild, a pathogen that has only recently been detected in marine species. It also poses a potential threat to researchers, veterinarians, and stranding network participants. The project includes the distribution of appropriate education materials to human health agencies.

Shedd Aquarium's research on stone-causing analytes through urine sampling of free-ranging and aquarium dolphins to better understand this syndrome in cetaceans.

Studies funded by the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, which has given over $2 million in grants since it was founded in 2004. Current research includes a study, prompted by an increase in gray whale strandings, to provide a much needed tool to assess the nutritional condition of the free-ranging animals. A second study, in concert with the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, is assessing the metabolic rate of killer whales, data which will ultimately be applied to the conservation of whales in the wild.

Vancouver Aquarium’s years-long population studies of transient killer whales off the coast of Vancouver, Canada.

Tampereen Sarkanniemi’s decades long support of research on killer whales in northern Norway, which has resulted in information about migration patterns and feeding behaviors.

Vancouver Aquarium’s research, which hopes to determine why the Steller sea lion population has dropped so dramatically.

The Indianapolis Zoo’s award of its Indianapolis Prize in 2006; the $100,000 award is the largest monetary award given to a scientist for conservation of an animal species.

A study investigating whether marine mammals have natural safeguards to prevent emboli formation, commonly known as the “bends.” The research, for which Dolphin Experience and Disney’s Living Seas have been training animals, will look at suggested links between manmade sounds in the ocean and stranded cetaceans.

Dolphin Encounter’s participation in a worldwide study of dolphin communication through behaviors, sounds and signals. Data collected at the facility for the Dolphin Communication Project will affect conservation and management policies for populations in the wild and data from wild dolphins will help model social and physical environments as well as behavioral enrichment programs for dolphins in human care.

Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund’s contribution of more than $275,000 to marine conservation projects in support of 14 organizations, including 800 coastal volunteers who report North Atlantic right whale sightings to prevent boat collisions, red tide’s association with manatee health, and potential solutions to bycatch of Franciscana dolphins. In 2006, the fund topped the $10 million dollar mark for funded projects.

Efforts by the Mirage to optimize, standardize, and validate a battery of immunological assays for assessment of immune function in bottlenose dolphins, which could assist in health assessments of populations in the wild.