A seafaring people, Solomon Islanders have relied on the ocean’s bounty for centuries, including its variety of dolphin species. A small number of tribes developed traditions of hunting dolphins using small boats and noise to drive them to shore.
In the early 2000s, non-native people – international dolphin traffickers – capitalizing on the low incomes in the Solomon Islands and seeing an opportunity to exploit the dolphin hunting situation, began paying relatively sizeable amounts to some locals to capture live bottlenose dolphins.
The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin is listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Accordingly, Article IV of the Convention requires that the export of any specimen requires the prior grant and presentation of...
Set in the Solomon Islands, the most beautiful yet most brutal nation in the South Pacific, The Dolphin Dealer examines the issues and ethics of the billion dollar swim-with-dolphins industry.
