The fabulous plan to retire dolphins

When officials at Baltimore’s National Aquarium started to think about how to better treat the dolphins in their care, it was pretty much a no-brainer to stop making these highly intelligent and sensitive animals do tricks for public amusement. More difficult was deciding the next best step for these captive creatures. Now the aquarium has come up with an inspired idea: return the dolphins to the ocean but in a protected refuge.

“The way a society treats the animals with whom it shares this planet speaks volumes about us,” John Racanelli, chief executive of the aquarium, said in explaining what will be the nation’s first dolphin reservation. Under the plan announced last week, after five years of debate and study, the aquarium’s eight Atlantic bottlenose dolphins will be retired and relocated to an oceanside sanctuary where they will continue under human care. All but one of the dolphins, ranging in age from 7 to 44, have lived their entire lives in tanks. Still under design, the outdoor, seawater facility will be significantly larger than the dolphins’ current pool space and have natural stimuli such as fish and marine plants. Locations for the refuge are still being scouted, and the goal is completion by the end of 2020.

The move, which Racanelli characterized as not “the cheapest or easiest option,” comes as the aquarium puts renewed emphasis on its role in aquatic conservation. The popular Inner Harbor tourist attraction expects to see no fall-off in visitors once the dolphin exhibit is closed, which reflects changing public attitudes. Lobbying by animal welfare activists and documentaries such as “Blackfish” have led to a public better informed about the needs of these magnificent animals and demand for better treatment.

Encouragingly, unease at mistreatment of animals is not limited to dolphins and orcas. Witness the decision of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to halt elephant shows and the move by Walmart and other big retailers to sell eggs only from cage-free chickens by 2025.

Racanelli is exactly right that the week’s announcement was as much about our humanity as it was about a group of dolphins.