Our News

Dolphins have been moved: New action required

This morning the four bottlenose dolphins that were imported to Hurghada from Japan in mid August, were moved by the owner to a larger pool that he has purposefully constructed as a quarantine area, in a new location. The HEPCA team, along with Ric O’Barry from the Earth Island Institute, and his crew were present and followed the move with a concerned eye. Although at first we encountered resistance from the owner and his guards, we persevered, and eventually were granted access to the new location to watch the dolphins being re-released into their new quarantine area. The size and conditions of the pool are compliant with the national standards as recommended by the National Coordination Committee which is formed of the Scientific Research Academy. However, as Ric O’Barry correctly stated on Sunday evening, a pool in the desert does not give the dolphins a good chance of survival. There are too many negative factors that can harm the animals, such as: dust, heat and UV damage. Further to this, construction of the area around the new pool is not complete, so the dolphins will endure further disruption and stress generated by noise pollution from diggers and construction workers until the area is finished. Not a positive way to start a time of healing for four very tired animals. In HEPCA’s opinion, just moving the dolphins from one dirty hole in the ground to another is not enough! There are no congratulations due to the owner; the dolphins should not have been here in the first place. The dolphins will now face a period of 105days in this new quarantine area. During this time, although we are unable to have access to them, HEPCA will be keeping track of their progress and take any possible action to secure the future of the dolphins at the end of this period. Now an important question arises: what are the plans for this new area? Upon deeper inspection of the vicinity, HEPCA have discovered a second large cavity being dug close to the pool the dolphins are now held in. If this is the start of a dolphinarium, we have a fight on our hands. HEPCA has received valuable information that permission has not been granted by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency for a dolphinarium to be constructed. If this is the case, this man is acting illegally, and we will use this to support our action. If there is something we have all learned as a community over the last month, it is that we are united in our petition against dolphinariums in the Red Sea. HEPCA continues to work on forming an alliance with tour operators, pushing for their agreement that they will not seek to profit from immoral facilities such as dolphinariums. We want their word that they will not advertise such a facility, or take their guests to it. If we have the tourists on our side, there is simply no requirement for a dolphinarium here! We said we would let you know what you could do, and we need to spread the word about our fight to ban dolphinariums in the Red Sea. We are currently designing stickers that we would like your help to distribute and display in as many areas as possible. As soon as these are ready, we will ensure everyone who would like to help, can have access to them. We want everyone living and visiting this area to be aware of our stance and support us.