Peru

Peru is a country rich in marine wildlife, a fact not commonly known. The Marine Connection has funded many projects in this country including investigating the slaughter of dolphins and porpoises for human consumption in the Lima area, ranging from the Peruvian capital southwards to Cerro Azul.

Most of them live offshore but the bottlenose dolphin and burmeisters porpoise live inshore. Up to 3,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed annually in Peru with Cerro Azul and Pucusana still being two of the main ports for the landing of the meat. Members of the public interviewed - 47% said they sometimes buy dolphin meat, with 89% being aware that eating dolphin meat is illegal.

To raise awareness of this and reach thousands more local people, the Marine Connection expanded the project by running adverts on 2 radio stations to highlight the capture, trade and consumption of these marine mammals. The message was broadcast 12 times a day, 7 days a week. In addition to this, radio reporters were given added information which not only educated them further about the problems but also enabled them to have the appropriate information to back up the radio campaign and talk about the issue in their programme.