Brighton Dolphinarium

[house your seagull]

I thought I'd start a thread about the Dolphinarium.

I have done a bit of digging and found some stuff.

First, some history ... did you know that there were Belugas down there once? Nowadays the only Belugas you'll find in Brighton are in the 1901 club, spread on blinis .

I also see that the Dolphinarium recorded the first ever captive birth. How about that!

The construction of Brighton Aquarium began in 1869 and it was officially opened by HRH Prince Arthur on 12 August 1872, during the British Association meeting there. The first General Manager and Secretary was John Keast Lord, who was in poor health. Mr Frank Buckland, Mr Henry Lee and Mr A. D. Bartlett were called in to assist in running the aquarium. Mr Lee took over as Naturalist Manager after Mr Lord's death. The aquarium was redesigned in 1927. All the historical records were lost in a great storm in 1935 (Burgess 1967).

Brighton also has a long history of attempts to keep cetaceans. Mr Buckland was doubtless involved in early attempts to maintain net-entangled harbour porpoises (Buckland 1876), and James (1914) describes the birth of a calf at Brighton, to one such animal. This appears to be the first birth to a captive animal recorded in the world. Blunt (1976) mentions that Brighton had some success with keeping a beluga (white whale), but there are no details. Since Lee's (1878) extensive survey of white whale keeping to that date does not include Brighton, the animal must have arrived later.

Aquarium Entertainments Ltd, under the Directorship of the late Mr F.C. Glover and of Mr E.E. Sander, have leased the Aquarium from Brighton Corporation since 1955. In 1968 a pool was constructed to house two female bottlenose dolphins from Miami (and is now used for sea lions). A larger pool was built in 1969 (substantially the present pool) and the two dolphins, re-named Prinny and Belle through a national competition, moved into this pool in April, according to local press reports. Four more dolphins were expected from Miami for the opening of the new pool but were delayed by an airline strike. Mr D. Muir and Mr G. Panitzke were trainers. Only four dolphins were later advertised as performing (Argus 2.4.69), because the new group included a mother (Missus) and her one year old calf (Baby, now Missie). This pair were rescued stranded animals and were initially kept in the old dolphin pool.

The history of the other animals is given in the Animals List. Brighton have twice entered into arrangements with other establishments to import groups of dolphins. In 1977, in association with Scarborough, six Mexican dolphins were to be imported for Scarborough. In the event, only five could be brought and these were chilled on the journey. The sick animals were brought to Brighton for nursing, but four died. The fifth recovered and went to Scarborough. This incident is discussed further in the Welfare section.

In 1979, in association with Mr. R. Bloom, six animals were brought from Ocean Park, Hong Kong, where they had already spent some months in captivity. The animals were collected in Taiwan. There is a winter drive fishery here, for meat for human consumption and for 'predation control' as the fishermen believe that the dolphins interfere with their business. In these fisheries, all animals not selected for display are slaughtered (Hammond and Leatherwood, 1984). No appropriate expeditions are listed for Ocean Park by Hammond and Leatherwood (1984). The animals were to have gone to Clacton initially, but the pier was damaged in a storm and accommodation was found at short notice in Worthing swimming pool. Two animals (Connie and Bertie) came to Brighton and the rest were exported.

I preusmed the dolphins were from Scotland or something, not flown in from Miami.

Here's the Sea Lion pool ...

The Brighton Dolphins were part of a programme to return them to the wild in the early 90s, but no one can prove this was successful unfortunately and the Dolphins weren't seen after a day or two of being released.

There's a guy who seems a bit of an expert of UK Dolphinariums and on a forum I just read he was blaming Brighton's relatively large amount of animal-rights activists for the reason behind the Dolphinarium being shut down.

What are your memories of the place? It seems odd to think such a thing would exist now.

 

[The Peanut Roaster]

I thought I'd start a thread about the Dolphinarium.

I have done a bit of digging and found some stuff.

First, some history ... did you know that there were Belugas down there once? Nowadays the only Belugas you'll find in Brighton are in the 1901 club, spread on blinis .

I also see that the Dolphinarium recorded the first ever captive birth. How about that!



I preusmed the dolphins were from Scotland or something, not flown in from Miami.

Here's the Sea Lion pool ...

The Brighton Dolphins were part of a programme to return them to the wild in the early 90s, but no one can prove this was successful unfortunately and the Dolphins weren't seen after a day or two of being released.

There's a guy who seems a bit of an expert of UK Dolphinariums and on a forum I just read he was blaming Brighton's relatively large amount of animal-rights activists for the reason behind the Dolphinarium being shut down.

What are your memories of the place? It seems odd to think such a thing would exist now.

My memories are that I learnt not to sit at the front if you wanted to stay dry. ( is that Tommy Boyd or a girl in the pic?)

 

[Hillian1]

Sadly I thought the Dolphinarium was brilliant when I wa a kid, probably 1972 my first visit.

How much we learn. Cruel beyond belief.

 

[house your seagull]

Here's the main pool ... I remember seeing kids being put in a boat if it was their birthday and being dragged around by the dolphins.

 

[house your seagull]

The stands look bigger than Withdean!

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Wasn't there some sort of scandal with a host of unexplained deaths?

I went once, and as a naive 7 year old, I thought it was great.

 

[blue2]

I worked at the Dolphinarium for one summer not long before it closed down

 

[amexee]

Glad that has stopped. It seems so weird that 20=30 years ago that people could see that as acceptable, surely the human mind has not evolved that much in a generation. Probably the saddest thing I have seen was a polar bear at Seaworld in Florida, it was in its enclosure just standing there rocking from side to side, I am no tree hugger, but felt f'ing angry that someone was making money whilst sending a magnificent beast mad.

 

[8ace]

I remember the seal bit stank of fish and seal piss.

 

[kevtherev]

Glad that has stopped. It seems so weird that 20=30 years ago that people could see that as acceptable, surely the human mind has not evolved that much in a generation. Probably the saddest thing I have seen was a polar beer at Seaworld in Florida, it was in its enclosure just standing there rocking from side to side, I am no tree hugger, but felt f'ing angry that someone was making money whilst sending a magnificent beast mad.

Why did you get so sad seeing a beer, just standing there. You got a drink problem and could not afford to buy one, at the time

 

[Seasider78]

I always remember it being a bit of a grubby dive and never really enjoyed it when our dad took us.

Mad to think dolphins were kept in that pool but then remember seeing a killer whale at Windsor in a pool barely 5 times it's length

 

[clippedgull]

Some species need conserving but a lot are kept in pens for our 'entertainment'. Gladly it's a million times better now than it used to be, but still a lot needs changing.

 

[oldalbiongirl]

Here's the main pool ... I remember seeing kids being put in a boat if it was their birthday and being dragged around by the dolphins.

Yes the boat. I remembered really wanting to have a go on the boat! Thing is, going to places like that, and zoos etc made me appreciate animals and develop an empathy for how they should really be living. So in a way they do help to educate. Obviously way out of date now but I cant deny as a kid I did like it there.

 

[Northstander]

I thought it was great, the dophins got fed each show with free fish whereas in the wild they would have to hunt for.... and they even had their very own swimming pool!

Look at those above jumping, they're all smiling and loving doing their tricks for people....whats the problem?

 

[kevtherev]

Glad that has stopped. It seems so weird that 20=30 years ago that people could see that as acceptable, surely the human mind has not evolved that much in a generation. Probably the saddest thing I have seen was a polar beer at Seaworld in Florida, it was in its enclosure just standing there rocking from side to side, I am no tree hugger, but felt f'ing angry that someone was making money whilst sending a magnificent beast mad.

There is another side of the argument. Polar Bears are on the endangered spices list and are being hunted to extinction. Is it better to try and keep the species going by breeding some in captivity, or just let them fade away into extinction and just become another great animal that once walked this earth.

 

[oldalbiongirl]

I always remember it being a bit of a grubby dive and never really enjoyed it when our dad took us.

Mad to think dolphins were kept in that pool but then remember seeing a killer whale at Windsor in a pool barely 5 times it's length

I remember that too. In fact I remember thinking as a kid that it just didnt seem right the whale being in such a tiny pool.

 

[Northstander]

Am I right in remembering the kids were given balls (red inflatables) and all got told to throw them to the dolphins when told, I seem to remember this from when I went?

 

[Meade's Ball]

I remember they had a plastic ball pit type enclosure that any youngster could dive into and crawl through, disappearing into as the equally playful parents pretended they didn't know where their offspring was, but instead of balls it was full to the average adult human waistline with a variety of crabs. There were the miniature ones such as the Pea Crab that sometimes wriggled their way unknowingly into an innocent back passage and had to be returned later when pwarped free, and the skin-scraping behemoths such as the Spiny Spider Crab to which not a child left the sandy sty without bleeding thanks to. I was in there for about twenty minutes screaming and stamping and chewing insanely on eyepoles. It was horrendous. Even worse was that to fix wounds on departure you'd walk through a paddling pool of leeches and other unnameable sucklers. They had a photo of me near the entrance to the dolphinarium with my clothes fully ripped and cuts drawn across my face with the jagged-edged snapped half-shells torn from the backs of the crustaceans that angered me first and most. This snap was of course there to prevent my return, successfully. I was pleased when the emporium of animalistic fiendishness closed, but the whispers of that pit of scraping claws remain with me today.

 

[daveinprague]

Its a difficult balance between animals dying out, and conservation. Making the things perform is out of order, but I think there should be some conservation, but really in much bigger enclosures if they are going to do it...and just endangered species, not every animal thats knocking about.
I went to the zoo in Prague a few weeks ago with a visitor and her little one..im not proud, it was host duty.... the polar bear was clearly insane, with repetative backward strokes in the small pool.... for all the time we stood there, and was doing the same on the way back out... but then again, how big an enclosure would be sufficient for a creature like a polar bear.. im torn between the points.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

I was taken there more than once as a kid.

I really enjoyed it. How naive I was.