CTV.ca News Staff, Sat. Aug. 30 2003 9:27 PM ET

Trade of wild dolphins investigated in Mexico

The Parque Nizuc water theme park in Cancun, Mexico has become the centre of a heated international debate over the capture and trade of wild dolphins.

The controversy erupted after the privately operated park was ordered closed down Tuesday, following the sudden deaths of two dolphins in the past month.

Mexican Animal Protection Agency director Dr. Jose Bernal says the deaths have caught the entire nation's attention.

"I'm concerned, my boss is concerned, Mexico is concerned," Bernal told CTV News.

In early July, the park secretly imported close to 30 dolphins plucked from the South Pacific near the Solomon Islands.

They were loaded on a charter plane, flown halfway across the world and delivered in darkness to the Mexican resort.

One of the imported dolphins died seven days later.

And then last weekend, a dolphin of Mexican origin that had been at the park eight years also died.

Richard O'Barry told CTV he's not surprised by the way things have turned out.

O'Barry was a dolphin trainer for ten years, including a stint on the popular TV series 'Flipper'. After one of the dolphins that portrayed the show's title character died in his arms, O'Barry traded animal training for advocacy.

Now, he has video footage which he says shows the Solomon Island dolphins being force fed with tubes
and getting injections of antibiotics.

"So that's the smoking gun," O'Barry said. "That tells us when they say they are happy and healthy, they are lying. It's simply not true."

O'Barry, and other animal advocates meeting in Cancun have raised concerns the wild dolphins could
introduce a new virus or bacteria that would have a detrimental impact on local populations.

They're demanding the dolphins be returned to the South Pacific.

While the Mexican government has now banned future importation, it is reluctant to order the park to send the dolphins home -- citing danger the journey back could kill them.

In the meantime, early indications suggest both mammals died of stress related illnesses. The only thing all sides of this emotional issue are now agreed on is they may not be the last to perish.

Based on a report from CTV's Denelle Balfour