Twenty-eight dolphins from the Solomon Islands arrived in
Cancun, Mexico on Monday, July 21, despite international
pressure to block the importation as well as many legal
questions about the capture of these animals off the coast of
the war-torn islands in the South Pacific. But the battle to
rescue these victims of the civil war in the Solomons is not
over.
A Mexican animal protection group, Conservación de Mamíferos
Marinos de México (COMARINO) filed a lawsuit this week to
challenge the legality of the import permit to Cancun.
COMARINO's lawsuit against the Mexican Ministry of the
Environment and Natural Resources claims that Parque Nizuc's
permit was incorrectly issued and that the ministry should have
revoked the permit once government officials learned that
certain conditions were apparently not being met.
In particular, COMARINO claims that the scientific authority
in Mexico issued the import permit with four specific
restrictions, all of which have been apparently violated. The
restrictions include one to keep the imported dolphins—an
"exotic" species known as Tursiops aduncus (closely
related to, but genetically and morphologically distinct from
Tursiops truncatus, the familiar "Flipper" dolphin)—in
separate holding tanks from the 15 native dolphins (T.
truncatus) already in Parque Nizuc. The Mexican marine park
was also supposed to develop a management program for the
subspecies and create an emergency program to prevent any
escape into the wild, neither of which Parque Nizuc has done,
COMARINO alleges.
Aerial photos (see above) taken of the Parque Nizuc sea pens
appear to show both species of dolphins, native and exotic,
swimming in the same area. This would appear to violate the
permit restriction on separate holding areas; the sea pens
would also seem to pose a serious risk of escape, since
hurricanes are a fact of life in the Cancun region and could
rip apart the holding pens, leaving the dolphins free to
roam.
"All 43 dolphins in the Parque Nizuc sea pens appear free to
interbreed and pass pathogens on to each other," says Dr. Naomi
Rose, marine mammal scientist for The HSUS. "This could pose a
serious danger to the native dolphin species. It could be like
what happened when European settlers arrived in the New
World—they wiped out large populations of Native Americans just
by spreading foreign diseases."
COMARINO and other animal protection organizations are
calling on the Mexican government to confiscate the Solomon
Islands dolphins. The apparent permit violations may help the
government justify the confiscation, but international animal
protectionists are also looking into potential violations of
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which would further bolster
arguments to confiscate the animals.
A confiscation by the Mexican government, Rose notes, could
not only prevent the spreading of pathogens between species,
but would also prevent the marine park from re-exporting the
animals to other countries.
There would seem to be great interest in the Solomon Islands
dolphins, particularly the estimated 170 dolphins still held in
pens back on the islands. News and field reports indicate that
buyers from Japan, Taiwan and Thailand have either expressed an
interest in purchasing dolphins or have actually visited the
animals in their makeshift sea pens back in the Solomons.
Meanwhile, Solomon Islands residents are becoming
increasingly frustrated by the treatment of these dolphins. A
98-year-old chief from Gela Island told The Age that
"dolphins are like people, and selling them overseas is not in
our culture." Others are complaining that large areas of coral
reef are being destroyed by dynamite in the daily struggle to
feed this large captive dolphin population.
What You Can Do
Write to the Mexican government and ask the Minister of the
Environment and Natural Resources to confiscate the Solomon
Islands dolphins at Parque Nizuc. Also, contact environmental
officials in Australia and New Zealand—countries that are
leading a peacekeeping force into the war-torn country—and ask
them to help the Solomons government to release the remaining
dolphins being held captive.
The Honorable Alexander Downer
Minister for Foreign Affairs
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA
Fax: 011 61 2 6273 4112
Senator the Honorable Robert Hill
Minister of Defence
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA
Fax: 011 61 2 6273 4118
The Honorable Dr. David Kemp
Minister for the Environment and Heritage
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA
Fax: 011 61 2 6273 6101
The Honorable Phil Goff, MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Fax: 011 64 4 495 8444
The Honorable Chris Carter, MP
Minister for Conservation
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Fax: 011 64 4 472 8034
The Honorable Victor Lichtinger
Secretario
Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales
Periférico Sur No. 4209, 6° piso
Colonia Jardines en la Montaña
14210, México D.F., México
Fax: 011 52 56 28 06 44
Read a letter from The HSUS about the Solomon Islands dolphin
captures.
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