Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: The Fragile Smile of the Dolphin

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jun 11 2007 (IPS) - The dolphin’s friendly smile might be nothing more than a beautiful but sad memory by the end of this century if nothing is done about the threats faced by these marine mammals.

Concern over the real possibility that they could go extinct prompted the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to declare 2007 the Year of the Dolphin, within the framework of the U.N. Convention on Migratory Species and in coordination with international environmental groups and the private sector.

Nirka López, an expert at Cuba’s National Aquarium, said that in Cuba, as in the rest of the Caribbean, there is little information on the state of the dolphin populations, their distribution, and the dangers that plague them, although the impact of tourism development, captures and climate change are being studied.

“In recent years, we have been carrying out work in Cuba to identify and assess the threats faced by dolphin populations,” López told IPS.

The National Aquarium, which was founded in 1960, has been conducting studies since 1997 on bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) in their natural habitat in the waters around the keys northeast of the island and off the north coast of the province of Matanzas, 90 km east of Havana.

Over the last decade, both areas have seen heavy growth of tourism, as part of the government strategy to develop the tourism industry since the crisis of the 1990s triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union and East European socialist bloc, whose effects are still being felt.

“If tourism development is designed properly, taking into account the possible effects on the environment, the impact can be minimised,” said López. She also mentioned the negative effects of heavy ship traffic on the distribution and behaviour of dolphins, as well as the deaths caused by accidental collisions with boats.

“In the areas of heaviest tourism development, like Varadero and Cayo Coco, there are still considerable populations (of dolphins),” said the biologist. “In those areas, monitoring programmes carried out for the past seven years by the National Aquarium have not detected any effects.”

Besides the bottlenose dolphin, Cuban waters in the Gulf of Mexico are also home to the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), the pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata) and the orca or killer whale (Orcinus orca), the largest member of the dolphin family.

The expansion of human settlements in coastal areas in the islands of the Caribbean and the resultant increase in pollution from industrial and urban waste could lead to a shrinking of populations of fish species that dolphins and orcas depend on for food.

The result: degradation of habitats, decline in water quality, and modifications to ecosystems and ecological balance that affect the entire food chain, said López, who noted that dolphins, at the top of the food chain, feel the accumulated impact of the changes.

According to the expert, who is heading up a research study on the bottlenose dolphin, dolphins do not inhabit the areas near large coastal cities in Cuba, like Santiago de Cuba, Cienfuegos and Havana, which means the risk factor is minimal there.

An estimated 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises drown every year when they are accidentally caught in fishing nets. This is considered the main cause of decline of these species, ahead of captures, collisions with boats or predatory shark attacks.

International environmental organisations protest the capture of dolphins to be put on exhibit, complaining that profits are often put ahead of the conservation of these species.

One of the organisations sponsoring the Year of the Dolphin, the London-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), argues in its ‘Dying to Entertain You’ campaign that “it is inherently cruel to imprison a free ranging, sentient, sociable and intelligent species for any reason. Keeping whales and dolphins in captivity does not serve any sound educational, scientific or conservation purpose.”

López said that in general, the main mission of aquariums is “exhibition, interaction and education for visitors,” while they also carry out scientific programmes to study dolphins and other species.

In Cuba, the National Aquarium’s leading public attractions are the dolphin and seal shows.

“A large part of the information that exists on the reproduction, physiology and learning and communication abilities of these species, which helps people to feel a closer link to them, has been collected in captivity, because these aspects are very difficult to study in the wild,” she said.

The expert said the National Aquarium has worked since 1973 to strengthen its “technical-professional capacity to undertake scientific programmes focusing on the natural populations of dolphins in Cuban waters, and to achieve the optimum handling and care of these animals (in captivity), including recreational and learning activities.”

In addition, she noted that the animals currently held in captivity could serve as a reserve gene bank for natural populations that are threatened in the wild by a number of human activities.