Daily Telegraph, National Post, Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Alex Spillius and Joseph Brean

'Shadowy' Canadian in Solomons dolphin dispute

HONIARA, Solomon Islands - A Canadian businessman is at the centre of a scheme that saw 30 wild dolphins spirited away from the Solomon Islands to Mexico last night, ostensibly to be sold as performers to the highest bidder. The animals were hoisted onto a Brazilian DC10 in Honiara yesterday, sedated in shallow pools of water in large blue coffin-sized crates. Their destination was an amusement park in Cancun.

The Mexican resort, Parque Nizuc, offers guests the chance to swim with the creatures.

Upwards of 150 more, caught by local fisherman in the waters around these poverty-stricken South Pacific islands, await the same fate.

Foreign buyers from as far away as Italy have flocked to Honiara, the capital of the Solomons, to bid as much as $25,000 for the remaining animals, which are being kept in cramped, shallow holding pens. Four have already died, according to the British High Commissioner for the islands, who is helping in the fight for a court injunction to stop further sales.

The Australian government failed yesterday in its last-ditch attempt to have Mexico block the deal, despite its apparent contravention of an international treaty on animal trade.

At the same time, Australia sent in the first contingent of a 2,000-strong force that will restore order on the islands, which have been wracked in recent months by ethnic strife and clashes between warlords.

In the middle of this chaos, Christopher Porter, a Canadian, runs the dolphin operation from a two-room office above a strip mall in Honiara, said Brian Baldwin, the British Commissioner.

Mr. Porter, who is married to a Solomon Islander of Chinese descent, arrived on the islands about six months ago and started buying dolphins from local fishermen for about $400.

"He's been quite a shadowy figure, and not too many people know what he's been up to," Mr. Baldwin said.

He told government officials and local press he wanted them to help educate fishermen about unnecessary killing of the creatures, and to create a resort that would boost tourism, with luxury cabins over dolphin pools.

"Clearly, that seems to have been a front for what is now happening," Mr. Baldwin said.

Today, there is no sign of a resort on the proposed site -- just six dolphin pools, each about 30 metres by 40 metres, set in a small natural harbour guarded by armed militias.

A New Zealand camera crew trying to film the pools was chased off and their boatman beaten, and other journalists have reported having their film and videotapes confiscated.

The four busiest pools hold 43 dolphins, according to a local source, each competing for space and incarcerated by a fence made of wire, rope and mango tree posts.

Mr. Porter was unavailable last night for comment, but his accountant, Greg Thompson, said the company has government approval for foreign investment and licences from the fisheries department.

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