Mirabai’s overview

1) If Option 2, 3, 4 or 5 of this proposal goes through and a dolphin swims towards you, you’d better turn your back and start swimming away as fast as possible, since failure to keep 50 yards away may get you a $27,000 fine and a year in jail. That’s right, it’s going to be a felony, so you’re going to find getting a job tough and you may not be able to get a passport.

2) The “compelling” research that NOAA has referred to – (you may want to start noticing the fact they haven’t use the words “conclusive”, “proof” or “evidence” anywhere) was funded in part by DOLPHIN QUEST – the operator of captive dolphin swim programs with an enormous vested interest in becoming the only legal way that people can interact with dolphins. This fact was mysteriously missed off the slides at the public meetings and press releases, and a NOAA official actually denied it at the first public meeting in Hawaii, before her colleague grabbed the mike to reassure everybody “it was only a little bit of money, and right at the end. ”

3) There is no evidence that the Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin population is on the decrease, not least because actually nobody can agree on a way to count the dolphins to come up with an accurate figure. Research has not shown that there is any direct let alone adverse correlation between Human Swim Activity and the health or population size of the Spinner Dolphins.

4) NOAA has authorized military training and testing activities which include sonar testing, and the detonation of various missiles underwater which will disturb the dolphins by deafening and disorienting them, preventing them from resting, diving, evading predators, feeding or mating. And a number of dolphins are expected to be fatally injured. Unlike the friendly human swimmers, the dolphins will be powerless to escape or avoid this form of harassment and yet NOAA has said that all of this, which will effect 11,000 Hawaiian Spinner dolphins over a 5 year period will have “negligible effect” – but human swim activity is something to be very concerned about?

NOAA has spent an undisclosed amount of money on research to back an action plan to target the purely speculative risk posed to the dolphins by human swim activity. There has been no mention of any of the other known threats to the dolphins that are perhaps where NOAA should really be focusing its efforts. What about address the effects on the dolphins of military testing, decreased food stocks, the threat posed by certain types of commercial fishing, industrial waste and pesticides polluting the dolphin’s resting habitats?