Dolphin Trade Denounced - Solomon Star

The scientific arm of the international trade body that regulates trade in
dolphins has denounced plans by the government to allow export of live
dolphins to other countries.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in a letter
to the government, insists that any export of wild dolphins would violate
CITES because studies on the status of local dolphin populations have never
been done.
Meanwhile in a letter the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Peter Hamilton
of Lifeforce of Canada urged the Government to stop dolphin trade.
"We also urge you to have those dolphins released to the wild and to ban all
further captures.
"Your country should not be associated with the dolphin slave trade. It is
cruel and inhumane to capture dolphins and put them in aquarium prisons," Mr
Hamilton said.
He states that in captivity the dolphins suffer physically and
psychologically because their social and behavioural needs cannot be
provided for.
"They also die prematurely. I know because I am a dolphin researcher who
studies them in the wild," the Canadian said in the letter.
The Government last week anounced that dolphins can now be exported after
the Solomon Islands Marine Mammal Education Centre won a challenge against
the ban of dolphin in the High Court by the previous government.

http://www.solomonstarnews.com/?q=node/14131