Ocean Park urged to disclose dolphin deaths after 'attempted suicide' video
Ocean Park moved earlier this week to dispel rumours that one of its dolphins had “attempted suicide” at the park's Marine Mammal Breeding and Research Centre, insisting that it was just normal behaviour.
Ocean Park should strive to increase transparency regarding the conditions of captive dolphins at the park, said a leading marine conservationist.
“Bottlenose dolphins have a lifespan of about 40 to 50 years, and the park is often proud to say some of their dolphins can live up to this long," Samuel Hung Ka-yiu, chairman of the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
"But it’s not about the quantity of life, it’s about the quality of life that we are concerned about," he added.
Ocean Park moved earlier this week to dispel rumours that one of its dolphins had “attempted suicide” at the park's Marine Mammal Breeding and Research Centre, insisting that it was just normal behaviour.
The rumours spread when a video was posted on Facebook last week showing 14-year-old Indo-Pacific bottlenose Pinky throwing herself against a pool wall.
“As kids, we thought of Ocean Park as some sort of earthly paradise with blue skies and smiling dolphins … this earthly paradise is more like a marine purgatory,” the post, by citizen journalist website inmediahk.com, said.