With apologies to Jan Broekema, I have to make the following crucial point to the entire list as others may face a similiar problem at some point in the future. I would hope nobody would seriously contemplate releasing a dolphin from one population into a different population. Your captive dolphin may come from a population where individuals have evolved resistance to a particular pathogen that is not present in the population of dolphins where you plan to release the individual. The consequences of such a release could be disastrous. An eminently readable account of what could happen in such situations is found in Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs & Steel". Richard Connor
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> We are looking for advice on the release of captive dolphins in the wild. If you have actual experience we would very much like to get into contact with you, on short notice.<br> <br> 'We' in this case is a group of people who are involved in presenting solutions to government regarding the possible release of previously captured wild dolphins (Tursiops trancatus). We are seeking answer as to:<br> <ul> <li>is this proper procedure for dolphins that have been in captivity for several months</li> <li>what are the risks involved for the animals; could this action cause more harm</li> <li>would you consider release in another area with less risk of recapture a risk or an advantage</li> <li>should re-introduction into the wild be helped or hindered by seeking out a local population</li> </ul> If you have a sound (scientific) basis for comments, please reply to me (and not the mailing list please).<br> <br> Will you be so kind to state your professional role in such releases? (Examples: zoo vet, biologist or cetologist, student volunteer, government official, skipper ...)<br> <br> May we contact you for further assistance?<br> <br> Jan Willem Broekema<br> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jw@broekemaweb.nl">jw@broekemaweb.nl</a><br> member of board of Dolphin Fund (Europe)<br> <br> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"Don't fall in love with some nice looking marine biologist" - Sandra Bullock as Lucy Kelson in Two Weeks Notice (2002) </pre> </body> </html> _______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list MARMAM@lists.uvic.ca https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam