Help these poor dolphins
- by: Flavio De Battista
- recipient: Government of Solomon Islands, Visitors Bureau of Solomon Islands
We experienced a wonderful time in the Solomon Is. with the friendly and lovely local people.
But when we discovered that at the Coconut Cafe, Honiara their keeping dolphins in a small
pool just for the fun of their customers, we think this isn't acceptable!
We created this petition to inform the government of the Solomons that people
(potential visitors) is caring about it and the practice to allow somebody (if there is permit) to keep these fantastic animals (and all the others in the small cages..) will have negative impact for a touristic development. Especially since such a wonderful place as the Solomon's doesn't need any "special attractions"
Please sign and let's help this beautiful animals! Thank you!
Dear Solomon Visitors Bureau
I like to write following report because after spending a wonderful dive week on Bilikiki Cruises we arrived at Honiara (capital of Solomon Is.) and had to learn that there is a Chinese guy having dolphins as an attraction for his business.
So we went to have a look and were shocked and disappointed to see, that Coconut Café, Mendana Avenue (close to Heritage Park hotel) is keeping 4 dolphins in a rather small pool (see attached pictures). I reckon the maximum size of the pool to be approx. 12 - 15m at the widest and approx. 22 -25m at the longest. As you can see on the pictures the small pool is actually getting even smaller as the depth at the edge is clearly not enough for the dolphins, which reduces the available space by 20-25%!
The dolphins were always hiding respectively not moving much around and made a poor and shy impression. We were really disgusted to see how the dolphins are kept.
But is not only the dolphins (even if they’re our biggest concern), there are also 2 crocodiles in a very poor state in very small cages. Also the cage with the hornbills’ and parrots are making a very poor impression.
Actually we were even more disappointed when we learned that Princess Kate and Prince William stayed in the Heritage Park Hotel adjacent to the Coconut Café (just about 3 weeks prior to us) and didn’t complain about what they saw (because sure they realized about the dolphins…). Is the royal family careless about these issues?
We’re also trying to convince dive organizations (PADI etc.) to publish this report and asking Solomon Is. government to withdraw any kind of permits (if there are any) and/or support, in order to stop the mistreating of intelligent mammals. For sure everybody going to Honiara has to boycott the premises and posting his/her concerns about having a government tolerating this!
We are going to post our complaints and remarks worldwide on different travel sites and hopefully gather support for these dolphins.
Flavio De Battista
Switzerland
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