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I went swimming with dolphins on vacation—and why I’ll never do it again

April 29, 2021
dolphin with head sticking out of water during daytime
Photo by Damian Patkowski on Unsplash
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Written by: Joe Loria, Meat Reduction Campaign Manager, World Animal Protection, US

I was 11 when my family decided to go on a cruise through the Mexican Riveria. It was beautiful, stopping in ports along the Baja Peninsula and the western coast of Mexico. The day before we were expected to dock at Puerto Vallarta, my dad approached my sister and me about an excursion he had booked after seeing it in a brochure in the ship's lobby.

Knowing how much I've always loved animals, he was excited to share that he had signed us up to swim with dolphins.

My parents were avid scuba divers, and I grew up watching homemade tapes of their adventures in the sea. One of my favorites is of them with wild dolphins in the Caribbean. I also was obsessed with Animal Planet, watching shows like The Jeff Corwin Experience.

Needless to say, I was pretty much a wildlife expert at the age of eight. However, I wasn't scuba trained and knew this was the closest I would get to swimming with these beautiful and intelligent animals. It was also just two years after we had gone on a family trip to the Bahamas, and I missed the opportunity to swim with dolphins there, so I didn't want to pass on the chance to do it finally.

That night all I could think about was dolphins. What did their skin feel like? If I went underwater with them, would I hear their high-pitched clicks, communicating with one another? How big are they in real life? I pondered for hours about the animals I would meet the next day, just filled with pure excitement.

The following day, I woke up, and we boarded a tiny bus to the dolphin park. We signed some forms and put on wetsuits. I felt like my dad in those homemade scuba videos, ready to swim with marine life.

As I approached the water, I suddenly realized that these tiny pools were where these animals, larger than most men I know, spend their entire lives.

However, I tried not to focus too much on this and enjoy myself. That was at least until things took a turn. I got in the pool and touched one of the dolphins – their skin felt like smooth vinyl flooring, but they had visible scarring on the tips of their noses from rubbing along the concrete edges of the pool. I then noticed a few even had open wounds that appeared to be recent.

Making matters worse, one of the dolphins bumped a woman, and the trainers immediately called the dolphin to the edge of the pool and demanded that we all vacate the water. This was when I witnessed a trainer take their foot and step on the dolphin's nose, forcibly closing the animal's mouth. That was it for me. I never got back in the pool, let alone ever went swimming with dolphins again.

Now I cannot say that all dolphin swimming experiences treat their animals like this, but I can say that the cruelty in swimming with these intelligent beings is inherent. While I thought dolphins were social creatures who always smiled and wanted to swim with us, I have since learned that this isn't the case. Dolphins are wild animals who deserve much more than a tiny swimming pool. They deserve an entire ocean.

You see, I'm an animal lover, and often we're the ones who don't even realize that our passion for these beautiful beings is what causes so much of their pain and suffering. I never considered the cruelty of keeping dolphins in captivity. The thought of them being taken from their families, spending their lives in an unnatural setting, being forced to entertain for some frozen fish, and living a life of misery never crossed my mind.

It's funny how we look back on things. I've recently asked my parents about this experience, especially since their love and appreciation for marine life has only grown deeper. My dad says he knew even back then that it didn't feel right bringing us to swim with dolphins but did so because he thought my sister and I would love it. He just wanted us to share his love of the ocean and all who call it home. Fortunately, now my family takes trips where we observe wildlife safely and respectfully. We've gone on seal walks in the winter and whale and dolphin watching trips in the summer.

For my birthday last May, my partner and I took a trip to Cape May, New Jersey, where we saw a pod of wild dolphins. They were jumping in the waves and swimming together in a pod as a family. It made me think about the dolphins trapped in that pool who were forced to entertain animal-loving tourists like I used to be. I wondered if those dolphins were still alive.

I've since taken my love for animals to the next level and now advocate for their wellbeing.

I share resources on why people should not support this cruel industry and encourage them to watch powerful documentaries like The Cove and Blackfish. Education is important because when we know better, we do better – and I believe the animals we love deserve better.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.