Premier puts dolphins before dollars

The Marine Connection is delighted to report that there will be no capture and export of live dolphins from the Western Provinces of the Solomon Islands. Instead the animals will remain where they belong – in the wild!

Premier of the Western Provinces, Alex Lokopio, was responding to concerns from US colleagues Earth Island Institute (EII) who are well known for their monitoring of dolphin friendly tuna fish, worldwide. The Solomon’s Government was told that global companies would no longer catch and export tuna from the Solomons if the government allowed exploitation of wild dolphins for captivity, a violation of the international standards for Dolphin Safe tuna.

Solomon Islands Marine Mammal Education Centre (SIMMEC) representative Robert Satu had signed an agreement with the province to fish and export fish overseas but a document from the Western Provincial Government had showed that Mr Satu was in fact, planning to export dolphins instead for the captivity industry. The tuna industry in the province would have suffered if the provincial government had accepted Mr Satu's application.

Groups worldwide are rejoicing with this latest news, however concerns remain that dolphins can still be exported from other areas in the Solomon Islands, as the current government overturned a previous ban on the capture and export of dolphins in 2007, sending wild caught dolphins to the Atlantis Palm Resort in Dubai.