Dubai Farming Dolphins

Solomon Islands to export 30 dolphins to Dubai
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqefFBoaHmyM6ydXErPvmF_cEm7w

HONIARA (AFP) — Up to 30 live dolphins will be exported from
the tiny Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands to the Middle East
next week, four years after the last such shipment to Mexico
caused international outrage.

The Solomon Islands Marine Mammal Education Centre and
Exporters Limited said Friday that the dolphins would be
collected from the company's pens on the island of Gavutu
and flown to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

"They will be flown on two DC-10s that are scheduled to
arrive on Tuesday," said company director Robert Satu.

Several international conservation groups including the
San Francisco-based Earth Islands Institute have decried
the decision by the government in Honiara to allow the
resumption of the live dolphin trade.

The Solomon Islands banned the practice in 2003 following the
outcry over the shipment of dolphins to Mexico.

But Satu took the government to court, claiming the ban was illegal,
and won in a landmark ruling earlier this year.

The government -- which has changed since the last shipment in 2003 --
has now given the trade its blessing and a high-level delegation
will be in Dubai to mark the arrival of the dolphins next week.

Satu said the company had hired a Dubai firm to provide
extra security for the animals' arrival, in a bid to deter
conservationists from staging any protests
or trying to block the shipments.

Although Satu refused to say how much the sale was worth,
he said both his company and the government would reap massive rewards.

"It's big -- bigger than gold or logging," said Satu.

The logging industry is the main source of income in the
Solomon Islands, but forests are being cut down at unsustainable levels.

The tiny Pacific country's central bank has estimated that
the logging industry could collapse within five years.

Satu said the dolphin trade could help promote economic development,
with local communities establishing their own dolphin farms.

"We've already created the market -- they could just follow," he said.
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