One Fish, Two Fish, 116 Tons of Fish
As part of Dolphin Quest’s preventative health care program, the dolphins receive a balanced diet consisting of a variety of fish. In one year, Dolphin Quest’s dolphins eat a total of 89,000 pounds of herring, 102,000 pounds of capelin, 24,000 pounds of mackerel, 1,200 pounds of saury and 15,800 pounds of squid. For a total of 116 tons of restaurant-quality fish.
To know how much the dolphins need to eat, trainers first determine each dolphin’s ideal body weight by working closely with the veterinarian and factoring in the individual animal’s morphology, age and gender. Twice a month trainers check to see if the animals are maintaining their healthiest weights by asking them to voluntarily slide onto a scale.
Not all fish are created equal in terms of nutritional value. Caloric value, protein, carbohydrates and fat can vary by fish species and from one season’s catch to the next. So, diets are adjusted as necessary. More mature fish, for example, have a higher fat content, and fish gain fat as they prepare for spawning. Dolphin Quest sends sample fish to a lab for analysis and uses the detailed results, along with the ideal dolphin body weights, as reference points to decide how much herring, capelin and squid each animal needs.
