One thing that makes the Kahala Hotel & Resort in Honolulu unique is its on-site dolphins, which have delighted children and adults for decades. My son had the chance to experience the Kahala Dolphin Quest program during our last visit and I offer the review below.
Kahala Dolphin Quest Packages
The Kahala has six dolphin residents in a lanai that stretches around much of the hotel’s outdoor common areas. Packages available include:
- Dolphin Adventure – a one hour experience including swimming with dolphins and feeding
- Dolphin Encounter – a “play-date” 30-minute experience that includes feeding and feeling the dolphins
- Kids Aquatic Adventure – includes interaction not just with dolphins, but fish, turtles, and other aquatic creatures onsite.
- Premier Experience – a private swim with dolphins
- Dolphin Dip – a 15-minute experience including in the shallow water lagoon
- Wee Family, Fins and Fun – a dockside experience for parents and their young children
- Family Swim Program – a 30-minute swim with dolphins for up to six family or friends
- Trainer For A Day – shadow the trainers for a day, taking total care of the dolphins
- Trainer For a Week – five days of being a trainer
More details and pricing here.
Kahala Dolphin Quest Wee Family, Fins and Fun Review
We decided the “Wee Family, Fins and Fun” package was most appropriate for three-year-old Augustine. While Augustine never got to fully submerge into the water with dolphins, he did have a chance to see two of them up close, feel them, listen to them, and feed them.
Having only seen pictures of dolphins in books, Augustine was over the moon to actually see one and delighted about how smart these majestic creatures were.
If you have young children, our program was just perfect for an initial acclimation to the dolphins. We were together with one other father-son family visiting from Japan.
Ethical Concerns
Let’s address the dolphin the room…isn’t it cruel and inhumane to subject these beautiful creatures to captivity?
I’m not going to try to win you over, if that is your attitude. The Kahala’s programs and habitat are certified by American Humane and the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks & Aquariums. Furthermore, I fundamentally believe animals are meant for humans, not equal to them or worthy of certain rights and protections reserved for the human race…that is why I eat meat and that is why I do not picket zoos.
And yet I recognize the moral dilemma…I have never hunted in my life and find it perverse, though I cannot reconcile that feeling with my willingness to eat mass-produced meats under even more inhumane (and there’s that word again) conditions. I am not adamant about this issue and open to persuasion.
You’re free to convince me I am wrong in the comment section below, but the dolphin experience made me appreciate the beauty and intellect of dolphins even more and took place in a way that would have been impossible to experience in the wild.
CONCLUSION
One of the things I love about the Kahala Hotel & Resort is the dolphins in-residence. Children, including my son, love dolphins and while a guest the Kahala you have a chance to better appreciate their beauty and intelligence in an up-close encounter. Thus, I recommend the Dolphin Quest experience.
I disagree that a similar experience would’ve been impossible in the Wild. If anything, it’s even more magical to experience wildlife in its normal habitat. Wild dolphins are usually very friendly, curious and have no problems coming up to humans and playing with them.
The problem with dolphins in captivity (and almost all other wild animals) is that they have been conditioned to do certain things to entertain spectators in return for food, if that isn’t cruel I don’t know what is.
I’m not trying to convince you one way or the other either, all I’m saying is that it’s worth going on a dolphin tour somewhere where you’d be able to experience them in the wild, I’m 100% sure you’ll have a much more enjoyable experience while at the same time not encouraging keeping animals in captivity for entertainment purposes.
The “humane” certification only means they aren’t actively mistreated or tortured, but that really doesn’t amount to much given that they’ve been taken from their natural habitat and implanted in an artificial environment that isn’t there’s.
“that they have been conditioned to do certain things to entertain spectators in return for food, ”
Kinda of sound like human entertainers, musicians, artists and sports entities that entertain spectators for money (food and shelter) and praise (positive reinforcement ).
My wife and I did a dolphin encounter in Mexico around a decade ago for our anniversary. We enjoyed it a lot although we didn’t realize that these amazing creatures were trapped for life there. In retrospect it was a poor decision but I’m not adamant on the subject of releasing captive mammals. Likewise we wouldn’t have ridden an elephant in Thailand if we knew what we know now about the treatment most receive. If the American Zoological Society and The Humane Society say it’s good at a dolphin experience, then it’s good. Unfortunately, neither endorsed the dolphin quest you review so I’m a lot more dubious about the ethical standards there. Different strokes, I suppose.
My favorite dolphin encounter was in Key Largo. I had rented a wave runner and was puttering around on the shallow Florida Bay side when I saw a fin stick out of the water. My heart skipped a beat or two when I saw a shark looking fin stick out of the water. After looking for a moment, I saw that it was in fact a dolphin. With her calf. I killed off the motor and they both serenely swam right by me. I’ll remember that until the day I die as a truly great experience.
This is animal abuse. You should be ashamed.
Not constructive. Defend your assertion or sashay away.
OMG! Did Matthew just quote RuRu?! Girl you better werk!
I loved it!! <3
Totally agree Sean. So sad to see. Anything not human is meant to suffer for humans sake. Really disgusting.
Non-sequitur…
Try again?
Marine mammals—highly intelligent, sensitive, social beings—suffer greatly in captivity. The chlorine and copper sulfate used to keep tanks clean have caused dolphins’ skin to peel off and may cause them to go blind. Many marine mammals suffer from peptic ulcers, often leading to death, because of frustration resulting from their unnatural lives. Captivity also tears families apart. In the wild, orcas often spend their entire lives with their mothers and siblings and live in large, complex groups.
While the aquarium industry claims that it exists purely for education and conservation, what these facilities really teach people is that it’s acceptable to keep animals in captivity—depressed, lonely, in cramped conditions, far from their natural homes, and at the mercy of humans. Marine mammal conservation is achieved by abolishing whaling, cleaning up our oceans, ending driftnet fishing, and prohibiting live captures, not by forcing cetaceans to swim in repetitive circles for our entertainment.
A much stronger argument with points that merit further research on my part. Thanks for your comment.
Totally agree…
Ric O’Barry, who was a dolphin trainer for the Flipper television series in the 1960s, says that parks and zoos “want you to think that God put [dolphins] there or [that] they rescued them. … If people knew the truth, they wouldn’t buy a ticket.”
Families Torn Apart
Killer whales, or orcas, are members of the dolphin family. They are also the largest animals held in captivity. In the wild, orcas stay with their mothers for life. Family groups, or “pods,” consist of a mother, her adult sons and daughters, and her daughters’ offspring. Members of the pod communicate in a “dialect” specific to that pod. Dolphins swim together in family pods or tribes of hundreds.
Capturing even one wild orca or dolphin disrupts the entire pod. To obtain a female dolphin of breeding age, for example, boats are used to chase the pod into shallow waters, where the animals are surrounded with nets that are gradually closed and lifted onto the boats. Unwanted dolphins are thrown back. Some die from shock or stress, and others slowly succumb to pneumonia when water enters their lungs through their blowholes. Pregnant females may spontaneously abort babies. In one instance, more than 200 panicked dolphins who had been corralled into a Japanese fishing port crashed into boat hulls and each other, becoming hopelessly entangled in nets during their attempt to find an escape route. Many became exhausted and drowned.
Orcas and dolphins who escape the ordeal of capture become frantic upon seeing their captured companions and may even try to save them. When Namu, a wild orca captured off the coast of Canada, was towed to the Seattle Marine Aquarium (then the Seattle Public Aquarium), he was insured by Lloyd’s of London, according to the BBC, for “various contingencies including rescue attempts by other whales.”
Adapting To An Alien World
In the wild, orcas and dolphins swim in vast oceans and rivers. But captured dolphins are confined to tanks that may be only 24 feet long, 24 feet wide, and 6 feet deep.5 They navigate by echolocation—bouncing sonar waves off other objects to determine their shape, density, distance, and location—but in tanks, the reverberations from their own sonar bounce off the walls, driving some dolphins insane. Jacques Cousteau said that life for a captive dolphin “leads to a confusion of the entire sensory apparatus, which in turn causes in such a sensitive creature a derangement of mental balance and behaviour.”
Newly captured dolphins and orcas are forced to learn tricks. Former trainers say that withholding food and isolating animals who refuse to perform are two common training methods. According to O’Barry, “positive reward” training is a euphemism for “food deprivation.”7 Former dolphin trainer Doug Cartlidge maintains that highly social dolphins are punished by being isolated from other animals: “You put them in a pen and ignore them. It’s like psychological torture.”8
Captivity’s Tragic Consequences
If life for captive orcas and dolphins were as tranquil as marine parks would have us believe, the animals would live longer than their wild counterparts. However, while captive marine mammals are not subject to predators or ocean pollution, their captivity is nevertheless a death sentence.
In the wild, dolphins can live into their 40s and 50s.9 But more than 80 percent of captive dolphins whose ages could be determined died before they turned 20, and those at SeaWorld and other marine parks rarely survive for more than 10 years.
The San Antonio News Express analyzed data submitted by SeaWorld to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and discovered that almost 150 sea lions, beluga whales, orcas and dolphins have died from infections since 1986, out of a total of 816 listed under the parks’ care.12 Florida’s Sun-Sentinel examined 30 years of federal documents pertaining to marine animals and found that nearly 4,000 sea lions, seals, dolphins, and whales have died in captivity, and of the 2,400 cases in which a cause of death was listed, one in five animals died “of uniquely human hazards or seemingly avoidable causes.”13 Captive marine mammals have died from swallowing coins, succumbing to heatstroke, and swimming in contaminated water.
The Trouble With ‘Interactive’ Programs
Many aquariums are now offering touch tanks and “swim-with” programs, giving visitors carte blanche to invade these animals’ already diminished worlds.
When the Georgia Aquarium announced that it was going to start allowing a dozen swimmers in the tank with its whale sharks every day, George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told the Los Angeles Times that subjecting animals to these programs is like “being in a bedroom for the rest of your life after having had the ability to walk around freely …. And then having 20 people come join you in your personal space every so often.”14 At least 15 dolphins housed at The Mirage’s Dolphin Habitat in Las Vegas, where patrons can pay to be a “trainer” for a day, have died since the facility opened in 1990. Four dolphins died within a year and a half at an Arizona facility, forcing the temporary closure of the site while an investigation was conducted. One marine mammal scientist noted that the desert sun is harsh for dolphins, and that “(t)he relentless exposure to UV radiation is not normal for them.” Thirty-year-old Sharky died of head injuries when she collided in mid-air with another dolphin while forced to perform tricks as part of SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove, where tourists participate in the “swim with dolphins” program.
Even dolphin-assisted therapy can be dangerous—not only for the animals but also for the mentally or physically disabled patients hoping to get some kind of “healing” experience. “Dolphin-assisted therapy is not a valid treatment for any disorder,” says Lori Marino, a dolphin and whale researcher from Emory University. She adds that “injury is a very real possibility when you place a child in a tank with a 400-pound wild animal that may be traumatized from being captured.”
Touch tanks are also death traps for animals. Forty stingrays died from an unknown toxin in the Calgary Zoo’s touch tank within three months after the exhibit opened.19 This mass death was not an isolated incident: 54 stingrays died in the tank at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, and 18 died at John Ball Zoo in Michigan.
The Way Forward
Richard Donner, coproducer of the film Free Willy, said, “Removal of these majestic mammals from the wild for commercial purposes is obscene. … These horrendous captures absolutely must become a thing of the past.”
People around the world are recognizing that dolphins, orcas, and other cetaceans do not belong in captivity. Mexico City banned the use of dolphins and other marine mammals in shows, therapy sessions and scientific experiments. France does not allow the breeding in captivity of dolphins and killer whales. India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests announced that the country would no longer permit dolphins to be kept in captivity for entertainment, stating that to do so would be “morally unacceptable.” Canada does not allow beluga whales to be captured and exported.26 Israel prohibits the importation of dolphins for use as entertainment.
What You Can Do
Don’t visit parks or zoos that have captive marine mammals unless you’re doing so to monitor the animals as part of a campaign. Encourage your local aquarium to stop breeding animals in order to make space for rehabilitating (and releasing) injured wildlife. Report poor conditions to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, leaflet at the park, write letters to the editors of local publications, and pressure officials to avoid subsidizing these facilities with taxpayer money. Support legislation that prohibits the capture or restricts the display of marine mammals.
Am I the only one that read this, acknowledged it, and said “WHO CARES”???
What about all the other problems in our world. Happy animals won’t solve famine.
Just because there are more important problems in the world doesn’t mean that animals held in captivity aren’t important issues as well. This is just a way for people to continue being selfish because you think caring for issues that are “more important” still makes you a good person. In reality if you have this mentality, you’re probably still a terrible person lol.
Please contemplate research on factory farming. At the very minimum, you will never eat pork again.
I knew when I saw the headline there would be multiple comments of pseudo animal rights nonsense. You gave your son a nice experience. The Dolphins are well treated. You don’t have anything to apologize for. Political correctness has taken away so much fun out of life. Who would have thought the circus wouldn’t exist in any form worth attending.
D Durum provided far more detail than I can, but I would tell you my issue is that in these dolphin encounter shows, the animals are basically trained to provide humans entertainment, in ways that are frequently questionable to the animals themselves. To me, that feels…exploitative and disturbing. That’s a different from a zoo or sanctuary, where yes, the animals are in captivity, but today are mostly left alone. Now, I’ll admit, when I was younger, I used to think these types of experiences were really cool.
What changed my mind?
About 20 years ago, my sister moved to Southwest Florida, and we visit her fairly regularly. Their house fronts a canal, which flows to a river a mile or so downstream, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico a few miles further down. My brother-in-law used to take us in his boat down to the Gulf, and on the way, wild dolphins and manatees would sometimes come up alongside and ride with us nonchalantly for a bit and show off. Sometimes you could even see one fishing in the canal from her backyard.
It made me realize that yes, you can appreciate and interact with these majestic animals in the wild, without the baggage of worrying if you’re harming them in any way.
https://www.keikoconservation.com/dolphin-quest
for more details.
“Dolphin Quest advertises itself as a wildlife sanctuary.
REALITY: Zero of Dolphin Quest’s dolphins were rescued.
Their dolphins are the captive bred offspring of the original 8 dolphins captured upon opening.
It cost only $200 to acquire the permit to capture them off the Florida coast.
Lono (Kahala Resort), Iwa (Hilton Waikoloa), Pele (Hilton Waikoloa), Kona (Hilton Waikoloa), and Cirrus (Bermuda) are all wild captures and still alive at their facilities….
Claim: Their accreditations are proof of their excellent animal care.
REALITY: Dolphin Quest, like many Swim With Dolphin Programs in the USA, points to their accreditations when questioned about the quality of their animal care.
Unfortunately, they leave out that many of the people creating the standards of these accrediting businesses are in the captive cetacean trade themselves, including Dolphin Quest’s founders.
American Humane Association:
American Humane Association’s requirements have been described as simply being the standard practices of the industry NOT the standard practices the public are likely to expect from an animal welfare label. In addition, facilities can be certified without even meeting all of these requirements.
There have been multiple complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission against American Humane Association, claiming their seal of approval and marketing materials are misleading, and their animal care standards are “inconsistent with the public’s perception of what is ‘humane.”
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Don’t forget that many Dolphins are known to commit rape and murder. Funny how all the liberal animal-rights activists on here ignore that fact!
Great point Andy K. I saw a dolphin hold up a little old lady at gunpoint in front of my house just last week. Fortunately she gave up her purse and didn’t get hurt, but as the dolphin swam away, that evil dolphin had the gaul to Flipper off. Talk about insult to injury.
ROTFL
Andy K,
I know some people think you were being facetious. The link below from NYT (paywall).
Yet a bunch of male dolphins (Pod) if Human might be labeled a ‘gang’ and pods of males dolphins do.
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/06/health/evidence-puts-dolphins-in-new-light-as-killers.html#:~:text=More%20widely%2C%20scientists%20and%20Federal,watching%2C%20feeding%20and%20swimming%20programs.&text=”Wildlife%20can%20be%20dangerous%2C,marine%20mammals%20differently%2C%20particularly%20dolphins.
I was shocked to find out he wasn’t joking!
Oh, those curls! What a wonderful experience for you both. Loved the photos.
I grew up in a very rural community. I did not hunt but most others around me did. I watched the reverence they had for their kills, how the animal was cared for and butchered after death. I have no issue with these hunters.
While I didn’t hunt we did raise several beef steers. Yup, steers. We’d buy the extras from a local dairy, typically males since they were not needed en masse on a dairy. We were raising them for beef so we had them fixed, they were much more manageable on our small operation. We grew hay for them to eat and once we harvested our own needs from the sweet corn they were fattened on what was left. When it was time for slaughter my dad taught me a great lesson on life. My dad would go out to the corral and talk with these animals. He would thank them for filling their purpose in providing our family with some income from the one animal and for filling our freezer for the next year from the other animal. He didn’t make it a point to take me out to do that, I just happened to walk out and see him doing this, just perfect timing for me. I watched that same reverence follow to how he cared for the hay, corn, the garden, he was like that no matter what was ‘harvested’.
As far as the dolphins are concerned I think it’s wonderful that these animals are treated in a very humane manner and that we are allowed to interact with them.
I will let this link explain why you should NOT swim with captive dolphins. You lack empathy for these intelligent animals. Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you should.
https://www.dolphinproject.com/blog/say-no-to-oahus-proposed-swim-with-dolphins-encounter/
Bruh… you “think animals are for humans”..???
That’s the same logic as thinking women are for men, or POC are for white people.
Nothing is for anybody, nobody serves someone else’s purpose, we’re all just here, existing. Not saying one animals life equals another eqauls a human’s, but dude, if you haven’t left this antiquated thinking behind by now, please take the chance to do so. Not saying you have to go vegan, set your goldfish free, or stop going to the zoo, but stop justifying our exploitation of them with “they’re here for us”, and search for more realistic explanations that doesn’t dismiss any need for ethics.
Wrong. Not my worldview and you will not put words in my mouth. I said nothing about gender or race, which falls on a whole different (and retrograde) sphere of thought impacting members within the human family, all equal and with equal dignity. Your assumptions are asinine and your logic is absent.
Sean nailed it. Matthew’s response as well as initial statement “animals are for humans” are typical of white privilege thinking. Surprise surprise that he doesn’t get it and trivializes it as asinine and illogical.
I reject the race-based lens from which you view life.
I’m honestly shocked you think animals exist solely for humans. That kind of arrogance is disturbing. Humans didn’t even come onto the scene until long after animals evolved. Thinking we somehow have the right to prioritize our species over others is not just selfish—it’s a massive misunderstanding of our place on this planet.
Dolphins, for example, are incredibly intelligent and social animals that can swim up to 60 miles a day in the wild, diving to depths of hundreds of feet and using their complex echolocation abilities to navigate and hunt. Confining them to tiny enclosures, even ones as large as a lagoon, deprives them of the space, stimulation, and social structure they need to thrive. It’s cruel and unnatural, no matter how you try to justify it.
Your argument justifying dolphin captivity is riddled with contradictions and selective ethics. Let’s break this down:
“Animals are meant for humans”
This belief is a relic of an outdated, anthropocentric worldview. Dolphins, like humans, are sentient beings capable of complex emotions, problem-solving, and even self-recognition. Assuming their sole purpose is to entertain or serve us ignores the intrinsic value of their existence.
Dolphin Behavior in the Wild
In the wild, dolphins are known to swim up to 60 miles a day, diving to great depths, navigating vast territories, and engaging in complex social interactions. Confining them to artificial environments like lagoons or pools—no matter how “certified” or “humane” they claim to be—strips them of their ability to behave naturally. Certifications from organizations like the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks & Aquariums are often industry-driven and do not reflect the true needs of wild animals.
“Appreciating their beauty and intellect”
Captivity doesn’t foster appreciation; it fosters complacency. Observing dolphins in tanks teaches us to accept their suffering as normal, when the reality is these animals often suffer from stress, physical ailments, and shorter lifespans compared to their wild counterparts. If you truly appreciated their beauty and intellect, you’d advocate for their right to live in their natural environment, not confined for human amusement.
The “moral dilemma”
You admit to being disturbed by hunting and mass meat production yet endorse dolphin captivity. Why? Just because this particular form of cruelty brings you entertainment doesn’t make it any less cruel. If anything, recognizing the problem but refusing to act on it reflects a deeper ethical failure.
“Impossible to experience in the wild”
It is possible to experience dolphins in the wild through respectful eco-tourism that prioritizes their well-being. That experience is far more meaningful and ethical than watching them perform in captivity.