Hi Cristina, thanks for your comment and I’m sorry to hear you had a similar experience to me. I’m even more saddened to hear that this is still happening years later and that wildlife tourism in Bocas hasn’t become more sustainable. You’re absolutely right – the way to raise awareness is to be more vocal. This can be in the moment, to the tour operators, to whoever sold you the tour or on an online review like TripAdvisor or Google Reviews for the company. Thinking back, I wish I’d demanded a refund. I feel that it would have helped hit home the point for the tour operators because they care about the money from tourists and if tourists start asking for refunds then that would hurt their business and they might be more inclined to make changes to how they approach animals.

Hi Dana, Thanks so much for reading and thinking about this issue further, I’m glad that you would think twice before booking anything on your travels! Happy travels to you too :)

Yes, Bocas was a really gorgeous place to visit, just such a shame about the unethical dolphin tours that are so popular in the area.

Hi Kate – thanks for coming by and reading. Yes, I agree. Well, actually Panama does have these laws in place but they are unfortunately not being followed nor enforced. Currently the law is that no more than two boats should approach dolphins, that they should maintain a distance of 300m, as well as allow dolphins to rest for 30 minutes between each interaction. Definitely not what is really going on.

Actually I think many of the tour operators/guides know what they’re doing is wrong, and you could certainly see some of the boat drivers were more wary than others (I would assume they had perhaps seen a collision before) but I think many of them are in a catch 22 that it’s their livelihood and that people are paying because they want to see dolphins. Hopefully as more awareness is raised and the demand decreases there will be more alternatives for them to market.

Yes, it’s still not good though as humans shouldn’t be involved in any dolphin killings at all. It would be interested to know the rate of injury too. Not a very nice though.

Thanks for your comment and support, Kate.

Hi Franca, thanks for reading our post. I had been reading about swimming with dolphins and whale watching tours, which was what had led me to be very suspicious of this kind of thing. Personally I think this is a difficult issue because so many people (us included) would come to the conclusion that watching them in the wild is a much better alternative to marine parks/shows. Unfortunately, the rule of thumb is always just to keep a good distance away from animals and enjoy watching them live their lives as they usually would.

I agree with you, and I think that there is still a long way to go – for us as well – in learning what is right and not when it comes to responsible animal tourism. Thanks for your thoughts :)

Yes, crazy number, that’s the high end. When we were there we were one of around 15 boats, which is still terrible. It doesn’t feel great, but I think that there are way of being polite about it and just mentioning that it would be worth them doing some further reading/research because you’ve heard other points of view on it.

That’s an interesting one. I have read about swimming with wild dolphins on Right Tourism (http://right-tourism.com/issues/marine-activities/swimming-with-wild-animals/), though I’ve no experience with this specific tour in NZ. Nonetheless, what I have read has indicated that this practise also isn’t great for dolphins over the long-term, and the general rule of thumb is to watch dolphins at a distance, preferably from the shore.

Thank you for reading and commenting, Nicholas, I really appreciate you sharing your personal experience too.

This piece is very important to raise awareness and perhaps make people change their mind about joining this kind of activities. All we can do it’s to talk about it more and more, share our views, decide not to support such activities and hope that people make a conscious decision too.