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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