Delfi, a male dolphin at Attica park in Greece, sadly died yesterday. He was one of four dolphins transferred to Greece in August last year. The four dolphins, Delfi, Veera and her sons Levi and Eevertti, were moved from Särkänniemi dolphinarium in Finland after the facility closed last year following reduced public attendance. Whilst it is to be celebrated that Finland has become a dolphinaria-free country, its four dolphins – who have only ever known an indoor captive facility – were moved to an outdoor tank with no shade from the sun, in Greece’s only dolphinarium; Attica Park.
 
Delfi was originally caught from the wild in the Gulf of Mexico. After over thirty years of captivity in Finland, Delfi has suddenly died less than six months after he was transferred to Attika park. A preliminary diagnosis of his cause of death has been attributed to cardiac arrest.
 
 
Captivity can be a very stressful environment for these animals, and no doubt Delfi’s transfer to Attica park; and joining their existing dolphin population, would have been very stressful for him and the other dolphins from Särkänniemi.
 
Delfi’s passing marks the sixth dolphin death in six years at Attica Park; a facility which had been operating without a licence until only last year after the Greek Ministry of Environment approved the expansion of the park in June 2016. This was despite the fact that the Greek Minister had pledged to pass a law banning cetacean captivity in the country.
Dolphinaria-Free Europe is very saddened by Delfi’s death, but we believe that his life can revive calls to the Greek Ministry of Environment to proceed with an immediate ban of cetacean captivity in Greece and the closure of the dolphinarium, as it had promised to do.
 
(photo credit: OSSI AHOLA / AAMULEHTI ARCHIVE)