CBC Doc: The Dolphin Dealer

[Colin]

Dolphin Dealer - Doc Zone | CBC-TV

You can watch the Documentary on the site.

"Christopher Porter is a former head trainer for the Vancouver Aquarium. In 2002 he partnered with a Greek resort owner and leased Gavutu, a 40-acre island in the Solomon Islands. Porter started building a dolphin resort, and caught over 100 dolphins with the help of indigenous hunters. These captures and his subsequent export of 28 dolphins to Mexico in 2003 triggered outrage in the media and among international environmental groups around the world. Though labeled as a poacher, Porter maintains that his project is actually protecting the Solomon Island dolphins by providing a live alternative to the traditional slaughter of wild dolphins"

I have mixed emotions regarding this Doc. They are saving thousands of dolphins from being slaughtered (for teeth and meat) but at what cost? I thought it might be interesting to get some other opinions.

~C

 

[culbert]

The Dolphin Dealer

I agree that after watching this documentary you end up feeling mixed emotions. The industry involved in capturing the dolphins argue they are capturing them to conserve them. But at the same time they are capturing a non-endangered species and transporting them to a marine park for tourists to enjoy, and to generate lots of money. Those valuable dolphins and their progeny will never go back into the wild gene pool, so they represent a loss to the ecosystem - which is hardly conservation.

The environmentalists on the other hand have ignored the traditional dolphin slaughters, which kill thousands of dolphins annually for meat and to use their teeth as currency to buy brides. They argue that its far worse to send a relative few live dolphins overseas, than have thousands of them butchered on a beach. I wonder which way the dolphins would vote on that one.

However you look at it neither side seems to have all the answers in this story.