Dolphin experience at luxury tourist park goes 'shockingly' wrong: 'Flipped my stomach'

A short video of the incident has sparked a furious response on social media.

Left: An aerial view of the Mexican resort's dolphin tanks. Right: Close up of the dolphin show at the resort.
Tourists watched on at a luxury resort as a dolphin trick went "shockingly" awry. Source: UrgentSeas

Concerns have been raised about the size of a hotel pool that contains live dolphins following the release of a “shocking” video overnight. The incident it captured stunned viewers worldwide, resulting in the luxury resort’s social media pages being flooded with bad reviews and calling for it to stop animal shows.

The short clip shows three captive dolphins leap out of the water as tourists wearing lifejackets watch on. One of the animals appears to misjudge the boundary of its tiny tank, landing on the hard edge of the pool. The accident results it it remaining motionless at the water’s edge as trainers rush to its aid.

Marine mammal activist Phil Demers shared the footage on his UrgentSeas social media accounts. Speaking to Yahoo News on Saturday morning, he revealed the video left him in “absolute shock”.

“This particular incident is one of the worst. It really, truly is. Even if it survived, its health is going to be severely compromised,” he said.

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“It’s completely inexcusable, it’s something that never would happen in the wild. It just eliminates any rationale they should exist in these concrete tanks.”

Left: Two dolphins jumping from the water. Middle: The moment before the dolphin hits the tank's edge. Right: A trainer ruses towards the dolphin that's been injured.
A dolphin crash landed onto the pool's edge as tourists watched on. Source: UrgentSeas

The vision is alleged to have been shot at Mexico at Barceló Maya Grand Resort, near Cancún which offers dolphin ‘friendly’ encounters at the discounted rate of US $66.75 ($107.45) that include shaking the dolphin’s fin and hugging it. For an extra US $15, tourists are allowed to ride them.

Yahoo News contacted the resort’s parent company Grupo Barcelo requesting urgent comment but it did not immediately respond. The hotel has limited comments to its recent social media posts, but animal welfare advocates have inundated its older content, calling for a boycott.

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“This broke my heart and flipped my stomach upside down,” one person wrote after watching the video. “We demand the closure,” another person wrote in Spanish.

Demers first raised concerns about conditions at the hotel late in January, releasing drone footage of the dolphins’ duel tanks which sit just metres from the open ocean. Opponents of the park referred to conditions as like a “prison”, noting they are some of the smallest dolphin enclosures in Latin America.

Demers said the latest incident indicates the tanks are too small and that the dolphins need to be removed. He urged people who oppose dolphin captivity to be vocal about the issue, saying, “This is the reality. We can close our eyes, but that's not going to serve the animals.”

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