Throughout history and all over the world, dolphins have been welcomed across the human-animal boundary as an ethical subject fit for human companionship. The dolphin's charismatic status has led to a burgeoning swim-with-dolphins industry that offers eager customers opportunities for close, in-water interactions with dolphins. With qualitative methods, I investigate human-dolphin encounter geographies in the marketplace today. Contributing to a growing animal geographies literature, three case studies in Florida and the Bahamas inform a situated understanding of particular animal encounter spaces. Through the use of narrative, I suggest that as encounter spaces change, so do the views and experiences associated with human-dolphin interactions, as well as the essential nature of what it means to be dolphin. Encouraging further dialogue about how we ought to interact with dolphins, I evaluate various encounter contexts, consider policy alternatives, and propose a practical ethic for human-dolphin encounters in a decidedly normative effort to advance the well-being of dolphins, humans and the spaces we share. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: March 2, 2006. / Protect dolphins, Anthropomorphism, Anthropocentrism, Marine parks, Nature-society, Human-animal divide, Case studies, Interpretative narrative, Wildlife encounters, Interpretative tradition, Dolphinarium, Oceanarium, Aquarium, aquaria, Zoos, Captivity, Dolphin sanctuaries, Wildlife law, Wildlife policy, Wildlife ethics, Dolphin law, Dolphin ethics, Dolphin captivity, Critical reflexivity, Hermeneutics, Dolphin protection, Dolphin protection policy / Includes bibliographical references. / J. Anthony Stallins, Professor Directing Dissertation; Andrew Opel, Outside Committee Member; Janet E. Kodras, Committee Member; Barney Warf, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168516 |
| Contributors | Stewart, Kristin L. (authoraut), Stallins, J. Anthony (professor directing dissertation), Opel, Andrew (outside committee member), Kodras, Janet E. (committee member), Warf, Barney (committee member), Department of Geography (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
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