WILLEMSTAD - The judge will rule next Thursday, June 9, in summary proceedings that Animal Rights has filed against the Curaçao Sea Aquarium. The case treatment was yesterday. According to the Dutch action group Animal Rights, five dolphins will face certain death if, as Sea Aquarium has planned, they are flown to Saudi Arabia to be admitted to the Fakieh Aquarium in Jeddah. It concerns the bottlenose dolphins Serena, Machu, Mosa, Sami and Luna, who were all born in Curaçao.
Financial gain
Animal Rights accuses Sea Aquarium of trafficking dolphins for financial gain. According to the action group, a dolphin would yield more than half a million guilders. The sale of the five dolphins would involve an amount of more than 2.5 million guilders.
According to Sea Aquarium and Dolphin Academy, there is nothing wrong and the permits have been granted on the basis of strict conditions, which have been studied in a preliminary stage and which are met.
The organization did indicate that Sea Aquarium/Dolphin Academy has been severely affected by the corona crisis. Of the 185 full-time employees, 111 are now left. In addition, the Sea Aquarium is only open five out of seven days in a week, while costs continue to run.
Dominance
But sale is also necessary, according to Sea Aquarium, because there are too many dolphins. Of the six that owner Adriaan 'Dutchie' Schrier started with, there are now more than twenty. Because there are relatively many males among them, according to Sea Aquarium there is a threat of a dominance problem that will be fought out in the long run and the organization does not want that.
The allegations that the dolphinarium in Saudi Arabia is not animal-friendly and even deadly for dolphins is far from the truth says Sea Aquarium. Animal Rights says that the dolphins there end up in a small chlorine basin that is also infested by sand from the desert. Dolphins are said to have died for that reason before.
Dolphin therapy
The organization also disregards the allegation that Sea Aquarium is a commercial water amusement park that only has an eye for making big profits with trick-showing, frolicking dolphins. That would be contradicted, among other things, by the fact that the Dolphin Academy offers dolphin therapy for autistic children and children with Down syndrome. Critics say that this is precisely the revenue model of the organization. More than three hundred families make annual use of the therapy, which has to pay around 15,000 guilders.
Animal Rights wants to prevent the relocation of the five dolphins and asks the Court to impose a penalty of 100,000 guilders per day. Just before the case was filed, that demand was raised to 500,000 guilders.