Inubousaki Marine Park in Chiba prefecture was closed down in January 2018. Honey, a bottlenose dolphin is left in the park alone. There were 4 other dolphins at the park but all of them died already. Inubousaki Marine Park do not answer to any questions related to the current situation of Honey or where she will be sent to.

The current situation of Honey

Honey is kept in a pool outside. She needs to fight against loneliness by herself.  The skin of her back is cracked, and she was performing stereotyped behavior of shaking her head up and down.

We asked Kaisou Health Center about the crack of her skin and they answered “Because the air is dry, her skin is also being dry. We use glycerin to take care of it.”  However, when we asked other professional, he answered “She might not be able to go underwater because there is gas in her body due to internal disease. Her skin might be damaged by sunshine because she cannot go underwater.”

They say that her skin is getting better, but she is still just floating spiritlessly. It must be very stressful for dolphins to be alone since dolphins are animals that live in groups. The pool is small and water is not clean. However, not only the bad environment, but also it is a serious problem that Honey has mental problems. We need to help her as soon as possible.

There was an action taken to send post cards to Inubousaki Marine Park to ask for improvement of the environment and information about her health status. The action attracted more attention than we imagined and TV or newspaper also talked about Honey.

Life of Honey

Honey is a wild dolphin. She was kept by drive hunt in Taiji Japan. Drive hunt is conducted for getting dolphins for meat. Honey’s family members were killed for meat.

Dolphins spend most of their time looking for food. In aquarium they just wait for humans to give them food, and do what people tell them to do. Dolphins in aquarium are deprived of their instinct.

Honey was brought to Inubousaki Marine Park during the time of 2004-2005. She gave a birth to “Marine” in June 2005. Bottlenose dolphins’ pregnancy last about 1 year. We can assume that she might have been pregnant when she was caught at Taiji. Marine, a baby of Honey died in Inubousaki Marine Park.

Currently, aquariums are focusing on breeding dolphins. However, even if artificial breeding is successful, only 10-20 percent of baby dolphins made by artificial breeding can survive 1 year.

Dolphins make groups in which mother dolphins have important roles. Dolphins have strong social connections in the groups. When mother dolphins go get food, other female dolphins take care of younger dolphins. Dolphins take care of their children cooperating with each other in groups. If honey did not get caught, she might be living in a big ocean with Marine at this moment.

Liberate Honey from dolphin show and artificial breeding

Dolphin shows are important source of income for aquariums. Human beings deprived Honey of her life as a dolphin instead of our entertainment. She is a victim of aquarium and dolphin show.

We hope to move Honey to a better environment. However, we do not want to move her to another aquarium. We want Honey to be free from dolphin shows and artificial breeding.

When moving dolphins back to the ocean, usually dolphins are returned to the group they used to belong to. However, Honey came from Taiji, so if we bring her to Taiji she will be caught and killed. Moreover, we can assume other dolphins in the group Honey used to belong to are already killed. There might be some dolphins that could run away from the drive hunt, but it is difficult to survive for dolphins that suffer from stress of the drive hunt and lost their friends and family.

We think it is best to move her to sanctuary. In sanctuary, dolphins can live in an environment that is similar to their natural habitat. They can feel changes of the seasons, they can communicate with each other and form groups.

We will keep working to bring back her life as dolphin.

You can find the post card action to help Honey from this link.

http://animals-peace.net/honey/
 

Information about sanctuaries

A plan to make a sanctuary for dolphins
http://animals-peace.net/wildlife/dolphin/baltimore.html
Costa Rica are closing down
http://www.arcj.org/animals/zoo/00/?id=948&pageID=5
Farm animal sanctuary
http://www.hachidory.com/animal/00/id=451
Chimpanzee sanctuary
http://www.arcj.org/animals/zoo/00/id=623

Videos about Honey by Eiki Sato, an animal journalist