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Dolphin exporter criticized
Ex-Vancouver Aquarium trainer at centre of deal

Randy Boswell
CanWest News Service

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

A Canadian is at the centre of an uproar over reported plans to export 40 bottlenose dolphins from the South Pacific nation of Solomon Islands to a resort in the Bahamas.

The governments of New Zealand and Australia have expressed concern after environmentalists raised alarms, despite a ban by the Solomon Islands following a previous furor over dolphin exports.

In 2003, former Vancouver Aquarium animal trainer Christopher Porter -- who operates a captive dolphins facility in the Solomon Islands -- arranged for 30 of the mammals to be flown to a Mexican amusement park. The deal, reportedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, prompted a chorus of condemnation from several governments, animal rights groups and the Solomon Islands' tuna industry, which feared an international consumer backlash over dolphin exports.

At the time, the British high commissioner to Solomon Islands, Brian Baldwin, described Porter as a "shadowy figure" who was using his Marine Mammal Education Centre as a "front" to make a fortune by selling captured Pacific dolphins -- at up to $30,000 US each -- to private zoos around the world.

Under international pressure Solomon Islands government said it would halt dolphin exports, and Mexico banned further imports.

This week, however, the World Society for Protection of Animals revealed details of another planned shipment of 40 dolphins from the open-air sea pens at Porter's remote centre to a Bahamian water park. New Zealand and Australian diplomats immediately asked the Solomon Islands government for assurances its ban on dolphin exports is still in place.

The government said it is, but some officials there are also said to be considering a new export application from Porter. At the same time, officials in the Bahamas defended their right to allow tourism developer Kerzner International to use the animals in a "swim with the dolphins" attraction in the Caribbean nation.

"We are not too concerned about these animal-rights activists because if you listen to them, quite frankly, you would not catch a fish to eat, or you would not cut down a tree to build a house," said the country's fisheries minister, Alfred Gray.
© The Vancouver Province 2005