Are there really global transport possibilities for living dolphins, and if so, who participates in it? Because of this reason the German dolphin and whale protection organisation ProWal concerned itself with this question and now, after one year of research there is an amazing result for the animal welfarists.
Andreas Morlok, CEO of ProWal: “In consequence of the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” the public was aware of a small fishing village in Japan where every year up to 2,000 dolphins should be killed. Some dolphins would be allowed to be alive in order to sell them for exorbitant sums to the dolphinaria-industry, according to the message of the film. We wanted to get a picture of the situation on the ground and traveled to Japan in December 2010.
Dolphin Hunts, Shocking Reality
We were shocked when we were actually confronted with this reality. We were eye witnesses of dolphin drive hunts and brutal killings of these intelligent marine mammals on several days. And exactly as the film described it, separating took place before the massacres begun. Dolphin trainers and traders picked out the most beautiful dolphins from the dolphin pot, herded into a cove, mostly bottlenose dolphins. These animals were kept in sea pens and in the Whale-Museum in Taiji in preparation for their following life in dolphinariums.
After the dolphins were trained, their value increases dramatically and they are sold for sums of more than 100,000 USD to dolphinariums. Certainly living dolphins are transported by ship from Osaka into Asian countries, but over longer distances, as in the Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt or other countries, these animals can surely only be transported by air.
Even in the Solomon Islands, in many countries of the Caribbean, the Black Sea and elsewhere in the world, dolphins are captured and transported to dolphinariums. Exactly these transports interested us. We wanted to know whether there are special air cargo companies that carry out such transport of animals and whether these are isolated cases or whether we are here on the scent of a very big deal.
ProWal Dolphin Sting Operation
Using the pretext of wanting to transport two wild dolphins, ProWal contacted all airlines and air cargo companies in the world in the beginning of 2011. 132 companies responded to the request, and many of them were happy to submit an offer immediately or after several months.”
Andreas Morlok: “We were more than surprised. Not only in our e-mail inbox every day, we found offers, we were also schmoozed day and night from people and companies by telephone, which wanted to receive an order, sometimes very intrusive. 61 air freight companies or airlines have already transported dolphins or were not averse to do this again. 71 companies have no chance or don’t want to be associated with dolphin transportation and refused such an order. Nevertheless, some of them already have transported dolphins in the past.
After dolphins are trained, their value increases dramatically
We were surprised that the fewest companies who wanted to do a dolphin transport have demanded, whether we have any papers for the dolphins. Also, scarcely anybody was interested in whether we have a specialized person, like a veterinarian who would accompany the dolphins transport. Only a few have made us aware that such a flight would be stressful for the animals and no one told us about the risk that the dolphins could die in such a transport.
Mainly focused on the transport route, the size of the packaging and their own references, which said, how often dolphins were transported to zoos and aquariums. A British airline had concerns with the air pressure in its machine and, however, believed that it already could work with a flight altitude of 1,000 meters. A company from Portugal advised us that a tutor should always cover the animals with water during the flight.
The tutor could fly in the cabin of the cargo plane, but must regularly descend into the cargo hold to check the welfare of animals. A company from the United States gloated about as a reference that they already transported dolphins along with a variety of other marine animals such as whale sharks, beluga whales and a large number of fish in a single flight. We were pleased about an answer of a company from China. They rejected the transport of living dolphins, because this is a too big risk for the animals.
Nevertheless, the overall result surprised us very much. We never thought that so many companies are ready and more or less also are able to transport dolphins. This allows the opinion that the worldwide trade with living dolphins is a booming business and the transport of these animals is no exception.”
ProWal survey of airlines or air cargo companies worldwide
61 airlines or air cargo companies already transport dolphins or at least were not unwilling
Abaco Air Ltd.
Act Airlines
ADC Airways
Air Malta plc
Air Transport World Freight Ltd, Auckland
Air Urga
Alliance Air Charter
Amerijet Inl
Animals First, Bogner OG
Apex Air Ltd.
Arkia Israeli Airlines
Atlantic Airlines
Aviavilsa
Avient Charters
Caglar Cag
Cargolux Airlines International S.A.
Caribean Airlines
Cathay Pacific Cargo/Tokyo
Cioyne Air
CX Cargo
Danish Air Transport A/S
DHL Hub GmbHLeipzig
ELAL
EuroGsa B.V.
EuroLot
Evergreen International Airlines
FLY 540
Gradlyn Kennels
G.K. Airfreight Service GmbH
Hainan Airlines
Jade Cargo International Co. Ltd
Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd
Kales Airline Services GmbH
LAC CHARTERS
Lufthansa Cargo Charter
Martinair Cargo
MASkargo
Maximus Aero
Northern Air Cargo
Polet Airlines, Europe
Pradeep Thakore
Procargo LTG
PT Cardig Air
Safair
SAS Cargo
Sefofane Air Charters
Sky KG Airlines
SkyLink Air & Logistic Support (USA)
Solomon Airlines
Srilankan Aero
Sunnyairways, Bangkok
TAM Linhas Aereas S/A
Thai Airways
TNT Airways s.a
Ukraine International Airlines
ULS Airlines Cargo
United Airlines Cargo
UPS Airlines
Volga-Dnepr Airlines
Wallace Air Cargo Group, Inc
XGL – Expeditionary Global Logistics
71 airlines or air cargo companies refused to transport dolphins
(some have transported dolphins in the past.)
ABS Jets, a.s
ACG Air Cargo Germany GmbH
Action Airlines
Adria Airways
Aer Arann
Aeroflot
AeroLogic GmbH
AEROMAR S.A. DE C.V.
Air PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG Berlin
Air Bucharest
Air China
Air Logistics GmbH
Airmark Aviation (S) Pte Ltd
Airnorth
Air Serv International
Air Transat
AMC Airlines
Ameriflight, LLC
ANTONOV Airlines
Atlasjet Airlines: Cagri AKCAY
Aviareps AG, GSA fur MALEV Hungarian Airlines
Bader Media GmbH
Bangkok Airways Co. Ltd
Berry Aviation Aircraft Charter Service
Bluebird Cargo
Cargo Sales & Service EMEA
China Airline
China Eastern Airlines
Cirrus Airlines Luftfahrtgesellschaft mbH
City Airline Schweden
Condor Flugdienst GmbH
Cyprus Airways Public Ltd
Direct Aero Services DSV/Bucharest
EAGLE AIR LIMITED
EasyJet Airline Company PLC
Finnair cargo
Gestair Commercial Aviation
Globe Air Cargo GmbH
Gulf Air
Harbourair Seaplanes
Hong Kong Airlines / Hong Kong Express
Jan, CUSTOMER SERVICE
JALCARGO Frankfurt
LAUDA AIR Luftfahrt GmbH
LOT Polish Airlines
Lufthansa Cargo AG
Malaysia Airlines
MALEV Air Cargo
Mondial Airline Services (Austria) GmbH – Air Cargo Center
NEXT JET
PACIFIC FLIGHT SERVICES PTE LTD, Singapore
Pegasus Airlines
Qatar Airways Cargo
S7 Airlines and Cargo
Servicios Aereos Profesionales, S.A.
Spirit Airlines
Spring airline
SUN-AIR
SVG Air
TAP Portugal
TAROM – Romanian Air Transport
TOLL AVIATION
TransAsia Airways
USA 3000 Airlines
Vildanden AS
VISTAJET, Luftfahrtunternehmen GmbH
Westwing
White Airways, S.A.
Wideroe Internet AS
Woodgate Aviation
Xtra Airways
Contradictory statement:
Lufthansa Cargo AG rejected the transport. Lufthansa Cargo Charter wanted to check at least the possibilities of loading and the costs.
