HEPCA: Fighting Dolphinariums in the Red Sea
Your help is needed!

Most of the Red Sea community will be aware of the saga surrounding the four bottlenose dolphins that were imported to Hurghada from Japan in mid August. A long and sad story made possible due to the existing corruption, which allowed that the animals be brought to Egypt and placed under quarantine in a residential area. 

In order to generate a better understanding for the suffering caused to these animals and the reason for HEPCA’s battle, over 200 members of the community and tourists gathered in HedKandi earlier this month for an evening with Ric O’Barry from the Earth Island Institute, to learn about the horrifying events that occur in capturing these animals with the purpose of selling them as performing puppets.
   
‘The Cove’ is a documentary that uncovers the inhumane capture and ongoing mistreatment of dolphins – if you haven’t seen it, we suggest you do! The evening was a great success, with members of the community raising some important questions. On that evening the dolphins here were still being held in the swimming pool of a villa in a residential area!

The current situation of the dolphins is that they have been moved by the owner to a larger pool in a new location that he has had constructed for the purpose of a quarantine area. The HEPCA team, along with Ric O’Barry and his crew were present and followed the move with a concerned eye.

Although they initially encountered resistance from the owner and his guards, they persevered, and eventually were granted access to the new location where they could watch the dolphins being re-released into their new quarantine area. 

The size and conditions of the new pool are compliant with the national standards as recommended by the National Coordination Committee which is formed by the Scientific Research Academy. However, as Ric O’Barry correctly stated during the gathering in HedKandi, 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 have to 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 brought here in the first place. 

The dolphins now face the remainder of the 105day quarantine period in this new pool. During this time, although we do not have access to them, HEPCA will be keeping track of their progress and will 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 closer inspection of the vicinity, HEPCA discovered a second large cavity being dug, close to the pool in which the dolphins are now being held. 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. HEPCA wants their word that they will not advertise such a facility, or take their guests to it. If the united community has the tourists on its side, there is simply no requirement for a dolphinarium here!

At the time of going to print, HEPCA were in the process of designing and printing a sticker that would be used to spread the word about the fight to ban dolphinariums in the Red Sea. As a conscious member of the Red Sea community your help is needed and as soon as the stickers are ready, we will be ensuring that everyone who would like to help can have access to them.

To keep up-to-date with HEPCA’s movements you can sign up for our newsletter through their website www.hepca.com; join their Facebook fanpage: HEPCA. 
Special thanks: HEPCA would like to send out a thank you to the CDWS for their continued support during this campaign.