Last year, I had the distinct proviledge
of spending 4 months studying abroad on the beautiful island archeapelago of
Zanzibar, a hot-spot for tourism off the coast of Tanzania. While spending a
month in Kizimkazi, the home of Zanzibar’s dolphin tourism industry, I had the
single most awesome experience of my
life thus far; I went out on a boat late one evening and got in the water to
swim solo with a pod of 30 wild indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins.
I was surprised by how relaxed they were
around me, moving slowly so that I could keep up with them and coming incredibly
close to me, checking me out and making eye contact with me. A mother even brought
her small calf within arm’s reach. For a species known to be very protective of
their young, I could only guess that she trusted me enough to not harm her
precious baby.
Many people say the ocean is a
peacefully quiet place, but those people didn’t hang around dolphins! There was
constant chatter of whistles and clicks, and whether they were talking to each
other about the stranger in the water or trying to get me to talk back, it was
a truly humbling experience to have such an intimate interaction with an
intelligent being of another species. The dolphins let me stay with them for about
20 minutes before they decided they either had better things to do or were
offended I wasn’t responding to their persistant calls. They picked up speed,
disappearing into deeper waters. I got on the boat ginning from ear to ear - it
was nothing short of a magical experience. However, most dolphin swims here aren’t anything like
what I had just done.
The dolphin tourism in this area can only
be described as rampant. Every morning tourists arrive in Kizimkazi from the
main city of Stone Town and pile onto boats owned and operated by local
fishermen to head out in search of dolphins. The boat owners race to make sure
their tourists get the best view of the dolphins first and there can be
anywhere between 2 and 18 boats with a single group of dolphins at one time.
Boat drivers then race around the pod at full speed, trying to drop the
tourists into the water right on top of the dolphins.
Unlike when I swam with them, the
dolphins are stressed by the flurry of boat activity and the dozens of noisy
swimmers in the water. They take deep dives and move quickly away from the
boats, but almost all of the groups around here have young calves that can’t
make it too far without needing to breath. As soon as they’re spotted surfacing,
boats race at them again and the harassment continues. Studies here have shown
that the dolphins no longer have sufficient time to forage, rest, socialize,
mate, and nurse their young. If it’s kept up, the local population is expected
to decline.
I know from my personal experience
swimming with the dolphins that it’s not inherently stressful or harmful to
them. If they didn’t want me there, they could have swam away and there was no
hope of me being able to keep up. Instead, they were curious and trusting of
me.
Everyone can and should have this kind
of wildlife experience. If you ever go to watch animals in the wild, be it a
safari, turtle walk, or dolphin swim, do it the right way. Go with an
organization that is conservation-consious and make sure tour groups are of
reasonable size - too many people will cause stress to most animals. If
possible, talk to locals and ask their opinions of the tourism. If it’s harming
local wildlife, they’ll have noticed.
If you think an experience you booked in
good faith seems to be harmful, please, don’t go through with it. Many of the
tourists in Zanzibar said that the dolphins seemed stressed but they had
already spent the money and they were already there so what difference would it
make for them to leave? I know it’s hard to give up something you’ve paid good
money for (trust me, I’m a broke college student), but isn’t the welfare of the
animals worth just a little bit more?
For more information about Zanzibar or
the dolphin tourism of Kizimkazi, you can download Rebecca's paper here.
Dolphin Volunteer Expeditions:
Kenya Dolphin Volunteer Project (Global Vision International)
Bahamas Dolphin Research (Oceanic Society)
Belize Dolphin Research (Oceanic Society)
Whales & Dolphins Under the California Sun (Earthwatch Institute)
