Hoku, a 27-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, doesn’t look much like a laboratory rat as he playfully swims through the Dolphin Quest lagoon at the Kahala Hotel & Resort.

But a sensor tag to gauge movement and a pneumotachometer, which measures breath, attached to Hoku by a group of visiting scientists could shed new light on marine mammal conservation.

The scientists say their research can be used to answer questions like how healthy are common bottlenose dolphins following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The research also gives scientists an opportunity to improve environmental assessments by reaching a better understanding of how dolphins react to changes in environment and how these changes affect their energy consumption. Understanding how a dolphin’s lungs work could also lead to developing new treatments for premature infants or older humans with respiratory problems.

The scientists will hold a news conference today at the Kahala Hotel to publicize their work. While they aren’t employed by Dolphin Quest, the visiting scientists support the attraction because of the access it gives them to study dolphins and the education it provides to tourists.

Still, Dolphin Quest and other captive dolphin attractions are growing increasingly controversial. Ko Olina Resort said in January its development plans do not include captive dolphins. On Saturday, Hawaii protesters participated in international Empty the Tanks Day, calling for the release of captive marine life at the Kahala Dolphin Quest and at Sea Life Park.

“It’s an international effort to make known that captivity is bad for dolphins and that these animals are used to swimming freely in the ocean,” said Cathy Goeggel, president of Animal Rights Hawaii. “I hope it will be illegal soon.”

Resolutions urging Hawaii facilities that hold captive cetaceans to discontinue breeding and phase out captivity stalled in this year’s state Legislature, but Goeggel said Animal Rights Hawaii and fellow supporters won’t give up. They are pushing the state Department of Agriculture to pass administrative rules banning the import of dangerous animals, such as lions and tigers, for circuses, carnivals and fairs. Goeggel said advocates plan to ask for a ban on marine animals next.

Some researchers see it a different way. Alex Shorter, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan, who is part of a scientific team gathering data at Kahala’s Dolphin Quest over a two-week period, said working with dolphins in captivity has many advantages.

“In the wild it’s hard to understand what we can’t see. Here we can ask the cetaceans to participate,” said Shorter, who is studying dolphin maneuverability. “We also can get a base line. We know the age of these dolphins and that they are healthy.”

The private facilities, such as Dolphin Quest, are often the only places with captive dolphins available to researchers because most government facilities have shut down, the scientists say.

Dolphin Quest, which also operates from the Hilton Waikoloa in Hawaii, and zoological facilities like it support scientific research related to marine animals, who in the wild are threatened by pollution, disease, ship strikes, marine debris and prey scarcity, said Andreas Fahlman, research director at Valencia, Spain’s Oceanografic Foundation.

“They (protesters) make a lot of claims that the animals in the ocean do this or that, but we don’t know so much about the differences. Actual data isn’t there,” Fahlman said. “It takes controlled programs like these to understand what is normal for (dolphins).”

Julie van der Hoop, a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark who is studying dolphin respiratory sounds, said she will supply the International Whaling Commission and the Office of Naval Research this fall with information about tag development. Austin Allen, a doctoral student at Duke University, is focusing on identifying the most “energetically optimal way” for dolphins to swim.

Julie Rocho-Levine, manager of marine animals at Kahala’s Dolphin Quest, said the scientific experiments provide needed exercise for the dolphins. She’s also proud that the tourism experience supports “vital marine mammal conservation, education and scientific study.”

“I see and feel every day that these animals are thriving here,” Rocho-Levine said. “We’re all about helping people connect to nature and inspiring them to be global stewards.”