Welfare of dolphins

We refer to the article "€4m upgrading for marine park" (October 23).

First of all, we would like to point out that if Mediterraneo's role is to educate people about dolphins, then why is it that a journalist got the name of the dolphin species wrong? In fact we would like to clarify that the actual name of the species is bottlenose dolphin and not bottleneck dolphin.

Moreover, Mediterraneo director Patrick Vella is making it very obvious that he is new in this business environment because it seems from his statement that he is not aware that CITES has nothing to do with the housing and management conditions of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). CITES is only involved in the trading of wild species and not in the keeping of dolphins in captivity.

Further to statements made by Zoomarine director Pedro Megalhaes, the public is not aware about the need to conserve and promote the welfare of dolphins thanks to Mediterraneo but thanks to the work of voluntary environmental organisations who lobbied to get local dolphins protected by law, way back in 1992 (before Mediterraneo existed). It was also the work of non-governmental organisations that resulted in the improvement of the existing laws for the protection of marine mammals way back in 1997.

Therefore, the role that Mediterraneo is playing within the conservation field is and has always been tackled through environmental organisations which stick to the policy of protecting dolphins, unlike dolphinaria that are still leading players in the capture of dolphins from the wild.

In fact, it was made clear in this article that the six new dolphins imported from Cuba were originally captured from the wild.

Therefore, according to what has been published, Mediterraneo so far has always used wild dolphins and not captive-bred dolphins. Where is Mediterraneo's role in conservation here? Cetfree has always condemned this practice because the capture of wild dolphins is very cruel and traumatising and often results in fatalities of animals in the same group.

Moreover, what does Mediterraneo expect to teach the public about dolphins by performing silly tricks? Dolphins going round in circles or throwing a ball or landing themselves on the side of the pool to be petted by people - this is surely not their natural behaviour!

Whatever role Mediterraneo has is definitely not based on conservation and nor on education with regards to marine mammals, as has been witnessed by members of ours and who included a marine mammal veterinarian.