BOAT DRIVER BEATEN AS NZ JOURNALISTS PROBE CAPTURE OF DOLPHINS

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BOAT DRIVER BEATEN AS NZ JOURNALISTS PROBE CAPTURE OF DOLPHINS

 

A New Zealand film crew filming a international syndicate catching

dolphins in Solomon Islands to sell have been attacked and their boat

driver bashed by security guards for the operations.

 

Frank Atu, a New Zealand cameraman working with his wife, television

journalist Ingrid Leary, told the Sydney Morning Herald the security

guards beat their boat driver non-stop for more than five minutes.

 

" Blood was coming out of his mouth, " Mr Atu said.

 

Mr Atu said he was with two Solomon Islanders in a boat he had hired to

film more than 30 dolphins in a makeshift pen on the main beach of the

capital, Honiara.

 

The dolphins are among hundreds sold by villagers to the syndicate for

about $450 each.

 

Potential buyers from Mexico, Taiwan and Thailand have inspected the

dolphins, which can be sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars as

performing animals.

 

Unconfirmed reports suggest the syndicate - which includes a Canadian and

a German - is preparing to fly the dolphins in the Honiara pen to Mexico.

 

Animal welfare groups today appealed to the New Zealand Government to stop

the dolphin capture.

 

A charter plane able to carry more than 30 dolphins was due to arrive in

the strife-torn Pacific Island nation today or tomorrow, to take a load to

Mexico, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) told NZPA

today.

 

More than 200 of the mammals had been caught by Solomon Islanders, WSPA

New Zealand spokeswoman Kim Muncaster said.

 

WSPA believed it was the largest capture of wild dolphins ever recorded.

 

They were being held in one-metre deep sea cages on the island of Gela,

off the capital Honiara, and in several other locations.

 

" These pens are very small and overcrowded -- dolphins don't react well to

stress and it causes aggression and death, " Ms Muncaster said.

 

" Our latest report from the Solomons suggests there are no qualified vets

looking after them. "

 

" Once caught, dolphins often travel for hours by open boat before reaching

these cages, journeys that are excruciating for these marine mammals, as

their internal organs are susceptible to being damaged by their body

weight once out of the water, " Ms Muncaster told NZPA.

 

The Solomons is not a signatory to the Convention on International Trade

in Endangered Species, which restricts international trade in dolphins if

detrimental to wild populations.

 

" This is an animal welfare tragedy and we are calling on New Zealand and

Australia to use their influence to stop these captures, " Ms Muncaster

said.

 

" It takes thousands of pounds of fish per day to feed so many dolphins,

which indicates the likelihood that they will be going hungry. "

 

The process of capturing dolphins was " quite violent " .

 

" Local sources have told us there is a bounty of $450 for every dolphin

caught, " Ms Muncaster said.

 

Australia and New Zealand are on the verge of sending a force of troops

and police to help restore order in the South Pacific nation.

 

Ms Muncaster believed the syndicate was using the Solomons to take as many

dolphins as it could into Mexico before an impending law change there

banned dolphin imports.

 

" We believe the dolphins are to be quickly taken into Mexico and some sold

on to other countries, " Ms Muncaster said.

 

Australia's Environment Minister David Kemp last week asked Mexico to

block the import of dolphins from the Solomons.

 

Mr Kemp said efforts by the Solomons government to stop exporting may be

difficult, given the islands' current situation.