Why Swimming With Dophins Isn't Good For Health - The Mammals Health! bbc online

Is it wrong to swim with dolphins?

By Elizabeth Diffin BBC News Magazine

Swimming with dolphins may be sold as a life-affirming experience, but research shows that it can be traumatic for the sea mammals themselves. So is it time to stop?

It regularly features as one of those transformative experiences to notch up on the "things to do before you die" bedpost - swim with dolphins and discover the very essence of life.

Many tour operators feature it in holiday packages. "You will feel completely free and at one with nature as you swim majestically along side these incredible creatures," is how one sells the experience.

Touching isn't recommended

But now doubt has been cast on health effects of dolphin swimming - not for humans, but the dolphins themselves.

British researchers have found that swimming close to bottlenose dolphins and trying to touch them can be highly stressful for the aquatic creatures - preventing them from resting, feeding or nurturing their young.

Lori Marino, a neuroscientist at Emory university in Atlanta, said they could suffer "psychological problems" stemming from swimming with tourists.
So should thrill-seekers looking for that ultimate life-changing experiences avoid this in future?

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) thinks so, primarily because it disturbs dolphins in their natural habitat. And since dolphins breathe air and so surface regularly, they can be followed by fast-moving vessels like water-skis and speedboats.

"People think if they make a disturbance, the animals will just move away," says spokesman Mark Simmonds. "But animals live in certain habitats. We might displace them, and they may not necessarily have a place that's equally good to go to."

Hands off
The study focuses on tours off the coast of Zanzibar, Tanzania, where up to 30 boats will invade one pod and swimmers chase the dolphins in hopes of making physical contact. This can lead to the dolphins becoming unsettled - especially as the tours run throughout the day.

When dolphins feel sociable, they swim near boats

Newcastle University's Dr Per Berggren, who conducted the research, is equally concerned that if the dolphins leave - they can swim up to 50 miles a day - Zanzibar's tourism-driven economy will suffer.

"If this activity continues, it eventually will push them away. We haven't said to stop swimming with the dolphins. But you need to do this in a very careful way."

There are tour operators who try to interact with the sea creatures in a more responsible way, by limiting numbers of boats and passengers, and letting the dolphins take the lead.

In the open sea off the coast of Portugal, Amanda Stafford, of The Dolphin Connection, tells clients to wait for the dolphin to approach them - and keep their hands to themselves. If dolphins aren't feeling sociable, they make it obvious.

"Dolphins in the wild can go in so many directions," she says. "You have to be able to read their behaviour to see when they're interested in socialising."

But even this is too much, says Mr Simmonds, not least because of the risk of transmitting diseases between humans and dolphins.

"We like people going to see the animals," he says. "[But] the best thing is to watch the animals from land."

Dolphins like to travel in pods

And keeping dolphins captive at resorts or aquatic parks is akin to torture, says Dr Horace Dobbs, founder and honorary director of International Dolphin Watch, as it separates these sociable animals from their pods. "It would be like locking me in a lavatory. We should respect [dolphins] in the same way that we respect other people."

Humans do seem to feel a sense of kinship with dolphins, intelligent, playful, talkative creatures that they are. And separate research shows people feel the benefit from getting up close and personal with dolphins, says Dr Dobbs. This is because dolphins are thought to emanate "chi" - the essential life force in Chinese medicine - and the basis of various therapies for clinical depression, autism and brain damage.

And Ms Stafford says her own studies in Australia show that when people interact with dolphins, their brainwaves show a more relaxed, dream-like state. It also stimulates the release of endorphins - known as the happy chemical - which induces feelings of joy.

So we may feel the benefit of swimming with dolphins - but the feeling may not be mutual.

"If a dolphin turns up, hordes of people turn up. They have an effect on the human psyche," says Dr Dobbs.

(Note: This story appeared on BBC Online on March 20, 2010.)

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Dolphins provide clues on fighting diabetes

Dolphins have diabetes off switch

By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News, San Diego

Dolphins appear to be resistant to insulin, say researchers

A study in dolphins has revealed genetic clues that could help medical researchers to treat type 2 diabetes.

Scientists from the US National Marine Mammal Foundation said that bottlenose dolphins are resistant to insulin - just like people with diabetes.

But in dolphins, they say, this resistance is switched on and off.
The researchers presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego.

They hope to collaborate with diabetes researchers to see if they can find and possibly even control an equivalent human "off switch".
The team, based in San Diego, took blood samples from trained dolphins that "snack" continuously during the day and fast overnight.
"The overnight changes in their blood chemistry match the changes in diabetic humans," explained Stephanie Venn-Watson, director of veterinary medicine at the foundation.

This means that insulin - the hormone that reduces the level of glucose in the blood - has no effect on the dolphins when they fast.

Big brains
In the morning, when they have their breakfast, they simply switch back into a non-fasting state, said Dr Venn-Watson. In diabetic people, chronic insulin resistance means having to carefully control blood glucose, usually with a diet low in sugar, to avoid a variety of medical complications.
But in dolphins, the resistance appears to be advantageous. Dr Venn-Watson explained that the mammals may have evolved this fasting-feeding switch to cope with a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet of fish.
"Bottlenose dolphins have large brains that need sugar," Dr Venn-Watson explained. Since their diet is very low in sugar, "it works to their advantage to have a condition that keeps blood sugar in the body… to keep the brain well fed".

But other marine mammals, such as seals, do not have this switch, and Dr Venn-Watson thinks that the "big brain factor" could be what connects human and dolphin blood chemistry.

There are several interesting diseases that you only see in humans and dolphins Lori Schwacke NOAA

"We're really looking at two species that have big brains with high demands for blood glucose," she said.

"And we have found changes in dolphins that suggest that [this insulin resistance] could get pushed into a disease state. "If we started feeding dolphins Twinkies, they would have diabetes."

Genetic link
Since both the human genome and the dolphin genome have been sequenced, Dr Venn-Watson hopes to work with medical researchers to turn the discovery in dolphins into an eventual treatment for humans.
"There is no desire to make a dolphin a lab animal," she said. "But the genome has been mapped - so we can compare those genes with human genes.

Scientists at the Salk Institute in San Diego have already discovered a "fasting gene" that is abnormally turned on in people with diabetes, "so maybe this is a smoking gun for a key point to control human diabetes", Dr Venn-Watson said.

If scientists can find out what switches the fasting gene on and off in dolphins, they may be able to do the same thing in people.

Lori Schwacke, a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Charleston, South Carolina, said that the work demonstrated that there are interesting similarities between dolphins and humans.

Dr Schwacke, who is studying the effect of pollution on dolphins along the coast of the US state of Georgia, is also interested in the links between dolphin and human health.

"There are several interesting diseases that you only see in humans and dolphins," she told BBC News. In this case, Dr Venn-Watson said, "the fundamental difference is that dolphins can switch it off and humans can't".

P+NOTE: This article first appeared on BBC Online on 19th February, 2010.

PET+BLOGSPOT is the official online blog of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive).

We take pride in the fact that everything you read in our blog is ACCURATE, RELIABLE and THE LATEST.

Our blog which was first established in October 2007 currently has more than 35,000 hits. PET+BLOGSPOT is updated frequently.

Kindly take note that views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Petpositive.

You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my