What is the main argument? Marine ParksBill DalyThe issue of whether we should allow marine parks to stay open has beenwidely debated in our community recently. It is an important issue because itconcerns fundamental moral and economic questions about the way we use ournative wildlife. A variety of different arguments have been put forward about thisissue. This essay will consider arguments for having marine parks and point tosome of the problems with these views. It will then put forward reasons for theintroduction of laws which prohibit these unnecessary and cruel institutions.It has been argued that dolphin parks provide the only opportunity for muchof the public to see marine mammals (Smith, 1992). Most Australians, so this argu-ment goes, live in cities and never get to see these animals. It is claimed that marineparks allow the average Australian to appreciate our marine wildlife. However,as Smith states, dolphins, whales and seals can be viewed in the wild at a numberof places on the Australian coast. In fact, there are more places where they can beseen in the wild than places where they can be seen in captivity. Moreover, mostAustralians would have to travel less to get to these locations than they would toget to the marine parks on the Gold Coast. In addition, places where there are wildmarine mammals do not charge an exorbitant entry fee-they are free.Dr. Alison Lane, the director of the Cairns Marine Science Institute, contends.that we need marine parks for scientific research (The Age, 19.2.93). She arguesthat much of our knowledge of marine mammals comes from studies whichwere undertaken at marine parks. The knowledge which is obtained at marineparks, so this argument goes, can be useful for planning for the conservationof marine mammal species. However, as Jones (1991) explains, park researchis only useful for understanding captive animals and is not useful for learningabout animals in the wild. Dolphin and whale biology changes in marine parkconditions. Their diets are different, they have significantly lower life spans andthey are more prone to disease. In addition, marine mammals in dolphin parks460APPENDIX Bare trained and this means that their patterns of social behaviour are changed.Therefore research undertaken at marine parks is generally not reliable.It is the contention of the Marine Park Owners Association that marineparks attract a lot of foreign tourists (The Sun-Herald, 12.4.93). This positiongoes on to assert that these tourists spend a lot of money, increasing ourforeign exchange earnings and assisting our national balance of payments.However, foreign tourists would still come to Australia if the parks wereclosed down. Indeed, surveys of overseas tourists show that they come herefor a variety of other reasons and not to visit places like Sea World (The Age,Good Weekend, 16.8.93). Tourists come here to see our native wildlife in its nat-ural environment and not to see it in cages and cement pools. They can seeanimals in those conditions in their own countries. Furthermore, we shouldbe promoting our beautiful natural environment to tourists and not the uglyconcrete marine park venues.Dolphin parks are unnecessary and cruel. The dolphins and whales inthese parks are kept in very small, cramped ponds, whereas in the wild theyare used to roaming long distances across the seas. Furthermore, the concretewalls of the pools interfere with the animals' sonar systems of communica-tion. In addition, keeping them in pools is a terrible restriction of the free-dom of fellow creatures who may have very high levels of intelligence and asophisticated language ability. Moreover, there are many documented casesof marine mammals helping humans who are in danger at sea or helpingfisherman with their work.In conclusion, these parks should closed, or at the very least, no new ani-mals should be captured for marine parks in the future. Our society is no longerprepared to tolerate unnecessary cruelty to animals for science and entertain-ment. If we continue with our past crimes against these creatures we will beanhu the

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1. Arguments for Marine Parks:• Public Access: Supporters argue that marine parks, such as dolphin…