Dolphins and whales deserve the same rights as humans do, according to a group of marine workers, philosophers and animal welfare activists who talked to scientists meeting in Canada.

Experts in conservation, animal behavior and philosophy want support for a Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans. Dolphins and whales and other members of the water-dwelling mammals of the cetacean family have demonstrated enough intelligence that they should be given their own bill of rights as humans. The group raised their concerns at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver, Canada, on the of the world's biggest scientific conferences.

The marine experts said that cetaceans exhibit different personalities like humans do, exist in complex societies and are intellectually and emotionally sophisticated than scientists thought. Years of research has shown that dolphins and whales have large and complex brains and have a human-like level of self-awareness. There has been research that dolphins and whales in different parts of the world have their own individual culture and identity. Dolphins can think linearly, can follow instructions from watching television and display altruistic behavior.

"Dolphins are non-human persons. A person needs to be an individual. If individuals count, then the deliberate killing of individuals of this sort is ethically the equivalent of deliberately killing a human being," said Dr. Thomas White, ethics expert at Loyola Marymount University in California. "We're saying the science has shown that individuality - consciousness, self-awareness - is no longer a unique human property. That poses all kinds of challenges."

Recognizing cetacean rights would mean an end to whaling and the captivity of dolphins and whales and their use in entertainment in marine parks. Killing whales and dolphins would equal to murder under the dictates of the bill.

The Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans was originally agreed to in May 2010 and contains such statements as "every individual cetacean has the right to life", and "no cetacean should be held in captivity or servitude, be subject to cruel treatment or be removed from their natural environment." Proponents of the declaration have been working to get support from scientists and policymakers.