Dubai Dolphinarium opens

Dubai Dolphinarium opened its doors yesterday, Wednesday 21st May 2008, with three bottlenose dolphins giving their first public appearance. The dolphins were exported from Turkey where they had been previously transferred from Ukraine's Karadag Biostation. According to information provided to the Marine Connection by CITES the dolphins were wild caught. This is a contradiction to claims made by Dubai Municipality and Christopher Richardson, Managing Director of Royal Segrex, that; "These are third generation dolphins who were born in artificial conditions and don?t know what it's like to be in the wild".
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It has also been reported that Dubai Dolphinarium has plans to import four bottlenose dolphins captured in Japan that are currently being "trained" to participate in dolphin assissted therapy (DAT). Janja Novak, Campaigns Development Officer comments: "We fail to see how Dubai Dolphinarium will, as they claim, educate their visitors and children about animal conservation when it is actively participating in receiving dolphins from one of the most brutal annual dolphin hunts in Japan, where thousands of dolphins and whales are slaughtered each year.  Unfortunately this import will be seen as endorsement from the United Arab Emirates' government for these captures/hunts to continue."
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Please write an email to the following Dubai officials and CITES in the United Arab Emirates, asking them not to authorise the importation of dolphins sourced from these horrendous drive hunts in Japan where, every year, pods of dolphins are rounded up out at sea and driven into shore where individual animals are selected by the captivity industry and the remainder are slaughtered.

Ahmed Abdul Karim,
Director of Public Parks and Horticulture Department at Dubai Municipality
Email: parks@dm.gov.ae

H.E. Abdulla Bin Abdal Aziz
Assistant Undersecretary of Agricultural Affairs Ministry of Environment and Water
Email: binabdalaziz@moew.gov.ae

Abdul Rab Al Hamiri
Head of CITES United Arab Emirates
Email: aalhamiri@ead.ae