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| FUNDEMAR |
| Dolphin Island Park |
The HSUS/HSI has been working in the Dominican Republic since 2002 to help local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) improve their government's policy regarding marine mammals. The government has long supported strong conservation of humpback whales, as the north coast of the country is a major breeding ground for these magnificent mammals. Its management of its resident bottlenose dolphin populations, however, was less informed and in August 2002, the government allowed a capture of eight dolphins to occur near Punta Cana. This galvanized the local environmental NGOs and in December 2002, The HSUS/HSI was invited by the Fundacion Dominicana de Estudios Marinos (FUNDEMAR) to give presentations to the government and academic communities of the country to discuss the issues of dolphin capture and dolphin captivity.
The capture and the subsequent outcry led to the establishment of a multi-national, multi-disciplinary research program called El Proyecto Amigos de los Delfines (the Friends of the Dolphins Project). The HSUS/HSI, along with several other local and international NGOs, was a founding member of the Amigos Project and has provided funding and infrastructure support to it each year. The Amigos Project has been a great success since its inception in 2003, holding numerous workshops and courses to teach academics, students, government officials, local tourism operators, and fishermen about dolphin biology, sustainable tourism, and responsible dolphin watching. It has drawn academics and students from the U.S., Spain, and England, as well as from the Dominican Republic. Its preliminary results have been presented at several academic forums, including the Society for Marine Mammalogy biennial conference and the annual conference of the European Cetacean Society. The project has attracted two large international grants, which have allowed several of the workshops and courses to go forward.
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| Eva Schandl |
| Manatí Park |
All has not run smoothly, however. Even as the research program got off to a great start and the promotion of ecotourism was being well-received in the local communities, the two Dominican dolphinariums that co-exist uneasily with the Amigos Project continued to operate. Manatí Park, a circus-like amusement park with several captive wildlife species on display, including dolphins, expanded from its inland facility in Bavaro to a beachfront location in Punta Cana, building sea pens adjacent to one of the resorts and stocking them with (we suspect) some of the dolphins from the hotly contested 2002 capture. The name of this adjunct facility is Dolphin Island and it is arguably illegal under domestic law, which prohibits the exhibition of protected species, including dolphins. (Manatí Park and Ocean World in Puerto Plata in the north were grandfathered in when this law was passed, but Dolphin Island should have been covered under it.) Ocean World sought to import dolphins from Cuba or the Solomon Islands in 2004 to replenish its dolphin collection after some of its animals apparently died. (It was impossible to confirm their fate.)
In response to strong lobbying by the local NGOs involved with the Amigos Project, including FUNDEMAR, the government banned imports of live dolphins soon after Ocean World requested permission to bring in Cuban animals. The lack of data on Cuban dolphin stocks was a primary motivation for this ban. The request to bring in Solomon Islands dolphins was apparently never seriously considered by the government, given all the controversy surrounding those animals.
Lingering concerns that the ban might be lifted were laid to rest when the government announced in November 2007 that it was rejecting a proposal to import the "Taiji Twelve"—12 victims of the notorious drive fishery in Japan. It is hoped that the failure of this proposal means that the Dominican Republic is also well on its way to closing down the three dolphinariums still operating there: with neither captures nor imports allowed, their captive dolphin collections will eventually dwindle to nothing. This was a terrific victory for FUNDEMAR , the supporters of the Amigos Project and all of the international NGOs, including The HSUS/HSI, that have worked in the Dominican Republic to ensure that the ban remains in place.
Meanwhile, in what was no doubt an attempt to directly challenge the ban, Parques Tropicales S.A. imported four dolphins from Cuba to Dolphin Island Park (in Bavaro) sometime in October or November 2007. In early December 2007, the Environmental (SEMARENA) Minister for the Dominican Republic, Omar Ramirez, announced that SEMARENA had not authorized this importation and that the agency would be prosecuting the company for violations of requirements established by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which the Dominican Republic is a signatory. The Dominican Republic is indeed serving as a shining example to the Caribbean region that strong environmental protection laws can be passed and enforced.
Updated Dec. 12, 2007
