100 dolphins can be captured and sold every year, Soloman Islands say

UP TO 100 live bottlenose dolphins can be exported from the Solomon Islands every year, and the government is encouraging residents to enter into the lucrative trade, the fisheries minister said yesterday.

Live dolphin exports can resume as soon as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, approves the move, Fisheries Minister Nollen Leni said.

Mr Leni said that under CITES, bottlenose dolphins — which are found all over the world, including off the coast of Ireland — can be exported so long as they are looked after properly during the shipping process, that harvesting of the marine mammal is “reasonable,” and that the shipment does not contravene local laws.

The Solomons are not a signatory to CITES, which aims to ensure that international wildlife trade does not threaten any species.

In 2003, several environmental groups complained when a marine ecotourism group in the Solomonsexported 28 bottlenose dolphins to Mexico. In the wake of that shipment, the Solomons began the process of outlawing theexport of live dolphins, but the government changed and the legislation lapsed in late 2005.

The government will encourage people to capture and sell dolphins, Mr Leni said. Water parks can pay tens of thousands of dollars for a trained dolphin.

World Wide Fund for Nature’s New Zealandexecutive director Chris Howe condemned the development as “appalling”, saying that exporting live marine mammals wasinhumane.

The Solomons, a nation of 480,000, are located 3,841km (2,386 miles) north-east of New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean.