The consultants responsible for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the proposed Dolphin Cove facility in Hanover, Jamaica have filed a lawsuit against the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), claiming defamation and demanding that a review of the EIA be removed from the JET website.

According to Diana McCaulay, head of JET, they received the suit on 6 March seeking, in addition to exemplary and aggravated damages, that the agency remove its review of the EIA from its website - in which it objected to the establishment of another captive dolphin facility.

"It's a way to intimidate civil groups," said McCaulay. "It is dangerous and completely without merit and they are doing it to intimidate us." The agency's review of the EIA on the Dolphin Cove facility planned for Paradise in Hanover includes among their concerns; a conflict of interest, as, according to the JET, a senior member of the firm which carried out the EIA is related by marriage to the owners of the proposed development.

Secondly, JET questioned the establishment of a captive breeding programme, using wild-caught Caribbean dolphins, as the JET claims no research has been done to determine whether the forced removal of the animals from Caribbean waters would affect the survival of the species.

McCaulay pointed out that as is routine and customary, they had forwarded their concerns and comments to the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), and then posted their review online - as they had done with many other reviews - as a general service to the public.

The environmental consultants' application for an interim injunction to have the JET remove the review from the website will be heard in the Supreme Court on March 17.

Read the full review here