Dolphins need our help
You’ve all heard about the dolphin slaughter happening in Taiji, Japan. But have you heard about the one which happened on the 21st on January 2013, in Fanelei village, Solomon Islands?
During the 2011-2012-season, about 800 dolphins were killed in Taiji (about 400 fewer than the year before).
On the 21st of January 2013, villagers of Fanalei caught and killed 700 dolphins.
I can’t even realize how brutal and violent this must have been. Fishermen of Taiji spend several months to kill that amount of dolphins. Fishermen of Fanalei only spent a day. C’est important.
The capture and slaughter was made after villagers refused to renew the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sealed with Earth Island Institute (EII). The two-year MOU expired in April last year.
Chairman of Fanalei Honiara based association Atkin Fakaia said his people resorted to their normal way of hunting dolphins after EII failed to honour the agreement; “In the MOU, EII promised to give us $2.4 million, but they only gave us $700.000.”
He said people cannot wait because they need money to survive in the local economy.
“They go back to hunting dolphin in order to sell the dolphin teeth and meat to earn money”, he said.
EII has responding by stating that the funding has stopped because the villagers have disobeyed and continued to hunt dolphins despite the agreement being in place.
Before the 8th of April 2010, the date when the Memorandum was sealed, more than 2000 dolphins were killed per year. From December 2008 to January 2009, a total of 18 dolphins were exported from the Salomon Islands to the Philippines to be trained before re-exported to the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.
In July 2011, the Singapore facility was not yet complete and the dolphins were still languishing in the Philippines. “As far as we know, at least two dolphins have already died.”
Solomon Islands continue to be a major source of captive dolphins for dolphin traffickers. How long before SeaWorld itself actually seals a deal with those fishermen too?
Don’t be silent, spread the word. Boycott dolphinariums, they’ll cease to finance captures. It is important.
Sources
http://solomonstarnews.com/news/national/16985
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/exposing_the_dolphin_trade_in_the_solomon_islands/
http://www.wdcs.org/news.php?select=1395