Is Captivity for Whales and Dolphins Ethical?

I'm afraid my trip to SeaWorld was much less stirring than my colleague Donna Trussell's -- my most salient memory being that I thought the killer whale's flopped-over dorsal fin was creepy. Of course, I was also seven at the time, and deeply disappointed that the whale in the tank didn't look like whales in pictures.

Now I know that many scientists attribute the wonky-looking fins of killer whales in captivity to the same problem Donna identified: big animal, small tank. But, beyond physical challenges, orcas in captivity can have mental and emotional ones as well.

The name 'killer whale' is a bit of a misnomer on both points -- not only are they seldom fatal to humans, orcas are actually large dolphins. One interesting session from last week's American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting focused on dolphin intelligence, which is consistently ranked among the highest for animals.

But it's not just intelligence, it's also their emotional and social lives that make them similar to humans. Scientists have found that dolphins can teach skills they learn to other dolphins, recognize themselves in mirrors, and use tools.

And, notes ScienceNOW, which covered the AAAS panel: "Researchers have found gangly neurons called Von Economo neurons, which in humans and apes have been linked to emotions, social cognition, and even theory of mind."

Maybe some of those factors were among what led panelist Thomas White of Loyola Marymont University to suggest that, from an ethical standpoint, we should think of dolphins as "non-human persons."