UAE | Environment

Dolphins and seals put on a show at new facility

The new centre houses three bottlenose dolphins and four seals, which have been moved from the Karadag Dolphinarium in Ukraine.

  • By Alice Johnson, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:08 May 22, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: Karl Jeffs/Gulf News
  • The facility was opened to the public on Wednesday, with three dolphin and seal displays a day.
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Dubai: Mammals at Dubai's first dolphinarium have enough room to swim, according to its General Manager.

The facility was opened to the public on Wednesday, with three dolphin and seal displays a day.

Christopher Richardson, General Manager of Dubai Dolphinarium, said: "Our facility follows international standards. There are so many metres that you need for the pools and you should have a veterinarian, which we have. We give the dolphins vitamin supplements and we import special rock mackerel. Their diet is also supplemented with different species. I say our dolphins have better treatment than I do. I don't have my own veterinarian, my office is a lot smaller than their pool and I'd work for fish too."

The new centre houses three bottlenose dolphins and four seals, which have been moved from the Karadag Dolphinarium in Ukraine. Performing dolphins start training at a young age, according to Tommy Wilken, dolphin trainer at the new centre.

"The dolphins are trained their entire lives - we start when they're young to build a relationship between the dolphin and trainer. They're eating, they seem to be integrating into the social group we have, so it's anthropomorphic for me to say that they're enjoying it, but from my experience and what I know, they're definitely happy."

He said the seals have an air-conditioned living area and an ice order is delivered during the summer months. "Seals have their own thermal regulation around their front and hind flippers. They have a network of veins that circulate cold blood around the body at all times ... regulating their body temperature. In my experience, seals have adopted well to tropical climes."

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Three main pools are located at the centre, including the arena show pool and training pool. The arena pool is a 5.5m deep, 26m wide elliptical pool - dimensions for other pools were not available.

Wilken said, "If you keep feeding a dolphin, which happens in some swim programmes around the world, the dolphin is relaxed, they put on a lot of weight and get heart problems. So the jumping that you see in the show also acts as exercise, which is vitally important for their well-being."

The two-year project has been established by Dubai Government and Dubai Municipality, and is run by Sea Magic Recreational Services. It offers educational programmes for children and a variety of therapy programmes for children with special needs.

According to a dolphinarium spokesperson, more than 100 special needs schools in Dubai have been approached about the programmes on offer.

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