Swimming with captive dolphins: current debates and post-experience dissonance

Dolphins have widespread contemporary appeal and anthropomorphic social representations of dolphins have fuelled a growing desire in tourist populations to seek interaction with them. This paper is concerned with the staged performance of swim-with-dolphin interaction programmes in aquaria. Qualitative interviews with tourists who have swum with captive dolphins identified their immediate recollections and stressed the grace, size and power of dolphins, but also a belief that the experience was too staged, too short and too expensive. Post-purchase dissonance focused on concerns with the size of enclosures and about captivity, too many tricks, limited interpretation and unfulfilled expectations of a quality interaction

Impacts of marine litter on cetaceans: a focus on plastic pollution

Marine litter has become a pervasive pollution problem affecting all of the world's seas. It is widely documented that marine litter, in particular plastic, has negative impacts on marine wildlife, primarily due to ingestion and entanglement. Since most cetacean species (more than 66%) are adversely affected by this pollution, this chapter is devoted to defining the impact of marine plastic pollution on cetaceans, including current knowledge, methodologic advances, and new data available on this emerging issue. The final objective of this chapter is also to identify key knowledge gaps and establish priority research and mitigation recommendations