Simon Parry and Hazel Parry Earth Times 23 Apr 10;
Meanwhile, 18 dolphins exported from the Solomon Islands in December and bound for a Singapore theme park are being looked after in the Philippines as a debate rages over whether they should be allowed into Singapore continues.
Hong Kong - In the doorway of a hotel in the Solomon Islands earlier this month, the star of an Oscar-winning documentary ambushed two theme park officials in his latest battle on behalf of the world's wild dolphin population.
Ric O'Barry - a trainer-turned-activist who featured in the 2009 film The Cove - targeted representatives from Hong Kong's Ocean Park who have been in talks about importing up to 30 bottlenose dolphins from the Solomons.
O'Barry claims the Animal Planet film crew he was working with saw Ocean Park employees cruising the coast of the Solomons' main island Guadalcanal trying to catch dolphins.
The representatives vehemently denied the allegation, saying they were only on an observation mission to track dolphins.
What is not at issue, however, is that the theme park wants to expand its dolphin stock and is in talks with the Solomons' government ministers about funding an "abundance survey" in return for an option to import dolphins.
Ocean Park's chairman Allan Zeman insisted the talks are at a "very preliminary stage" and that no dolphins would be imported until his officials are satisfied that the stock of bottlenose dolphins in the Pacific country is sustainable.
Conservationists with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) are nonetheless alarmed.
"We are opposed to the live capture of dolphins due to the massive animal welfare issues involved," said Sandy Macalister, executive director of the Hong Kong SPCA. "It is a trade that shouldn't exist in this day and age. It is extremely difficult to justify."
O'Barry, 59, who trained dolphins for the television series Flipper before becoming an activist, said the Ocean Park officials told him, "We are conservationists." He added, "Then when they saw our cameras they ran like hell."
Ocean Park chief executive Tom Mehrmann insisted his officials had not been involved in any dolphin hunts. "It was an observation boat. It had no nets. There was no capture of dolphins," he said.
"We are there to do research first and foremost," he said. "If there is a sustainable source we would look into whether we can get permits to import dolphins but it is a very long process."
The notion of taking wild dolphins to build up the breeding stocks at Ocean Park with its currently 16 dolphins, is an affront to some conservationists.
US-based pressure group the Earth Island Institute said it wouldcall for a boycott of Ocean Park and Hong Kong as a tourist destination if the import of dolphins goes ahead.
Mark Berman, director of the institute's international monitoring programme, said wild dolphins sell for around 100,000 dollars each. Describing the capture method, he said, "They are chased with nets and encircled.
"The ones they want to keep, they drag them onto a boat and manhandle them and give them blood tests. To get 30 they probably have to catch 100. It is intense harassment, an intense nightmare."
Only Mexico and the United Arab Emirates had imported wild dolphins from the Solomon Islands in recent years, Berman said. "Over 50 per cent of the dolphins shipped to Mexico are now dead," he said.
"Mexico has since banned the import of live dolphins from anywhere in the world because of that fiasco. In Dubai at least six of the 28 shipped there are dead."
Meanwhile, 18 dolphins exported from the Solomon Islands in December and bound for a Singapore theme park are being looked after in the Philippines as a debate rages over whether they should be allowed into Singapore continues.
"There is no sustainable catch of dolphins. We say it should be banned worldwide, period," Berman argued.
As far as the Solomon Islands government is concerned, activists like O'Barry and Berman are a costly and embarrassing annoyance they would prefer to see the back of.
Government advisor Dr Baddley Anita said trading a limited, sustainable number of dolphins overseas should be allowed, saying island communities already slaughtered 2,000 to 3,000 dolphins a year for food.
Whatever was agreed, activists had no place in the debate, he argued. "They are interfering with the cultural and traditional practice of dolphin harvesting and eating by the communities here," Anita said. "To us that is not acceptable."
