As we reported last week, the Solomon Islands government released 27 dolphins that were captured and illegally held in shallow pens, likely destined for export to captive facilities in places like China.The investigative information that the government acted on was provided by the International Marine Mammal Project.
TakePart's David Kirby spoke to International Marine Mammal Project director David Phillips for his reaction, who commended the government for sticking to the existing dolphin capture and export ban. “I think it took a lot of courage and boldness for them to do it."
“Somewhere between 27 and 40 dolphins could very well have been in preparation for loading onto jets and being sold off to Chinese theme parks,” he added. “Fortunately, this time that was stopped, and the dolphins were returned. But that doesn’t happen very often."
The International Marine Mammal Project worked with the government to establish the ban on captures and exports of live dolphins from the Solomons. We will continue our investigations in the Solomon Islands to monitor for any schemes involving dolphin capture and export.
For the full article on TakePart, click here.
TAKE ACTION: PLEASE SEND FAX’S OR EMAILS OF SUPPORT TO THE SOLOMON ISLANDS GOVERNMENT’S ACTIONS AGAINST THE DOLPHIN CAPTURES
Minister Ferral Lasi
Acting Fisheries Secretary
Fisheries and Marine Resources
Solomon Islands
FAX: (677) 38730
email: flasi@fisheries.gov.sb
(Photo: Lisa Wiltse/Corbis via Getty Images)
