(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The Solomon Islands is under international pressure to end dolphin hunting.
Many in the tiny Pacific island nation believe there are plenty of dolphins and have vowed never to give up what they say is part of their culture.
But concerned about its international reputation, the Solomons government hopes to buy off hunters to stop the kills and instead invest in dolphin tourism.
Stefan Armbruster reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Family heirlooms of the dolphin people, delicate neckchains of coral and dolphin teeth are highly-prized Solomon Islands wedding wealth, handed down through the generations.
Ethel Sigimanu from Fanalei village in Malaita now lives in the capital Honiara but continues the tradition.
"My mother passed it on to me because I'm the eldest daughter in the family. It's part of our culture, what gives us our identity, as a culture and a society, and we're very proud of it. I can't see my daughter getting married without the dolphin teeth. "
Her daughter Jo, studies in Australia and hopes one day to marry in full traditional kastom.
"I feel very proud, it is my identity, it represents my people, it's part of me. When they have a wedding, they have a white wedding gown and jewellery and all that, this is what I wear, this is what I need, and this is what I go into a wedding with."
The wedding finery is beautiful to behold.
However, these dolphin teeth have a controversial source.
"In our culture, we eat dolphin. It's very nice meat out from the sea. We call it ocean beef. "
Emmanuel Tigi is a dolphin caller and community leader from Bita'ama, one of about eight villager groups that traditionally hunt dolphin off the island of Malaita.
"We can exchange for food from highlands. We are coastals. We live by the sea, and we bring meat to the highlands and the highlands bring us food. In 12 months, when we catch dolphins for three months, that's our budget. And it brings highland and coastal people peace and harmony and unity and it always brings people together."
Not just an important source of protein for the traditional villager, dolphins provide valuable teeth and with them prestige.
Emanuel Tigi says giving up the sporadic dolphin hunts would be a controversial decision.
"We are the powerful tribe of dolphin from Malaita and powerful tribe of catching dolphin is the Bita'ama tribe. It's a big decision. When go to my father and brothers, they says it's a sacrifice Tigi, it's our inheritance. When we stop dolphin it's a problem. We will have no revenue earning each year."
Coastal dolphins are rounded up using a fleet of canoes, driven into a bay and then killed on the beach.
Emanuel Tigi doesn't think it's threatening any species.
"In our custom and culture. We hunt dolphin in the ocean just three months. That's sustainable management, and the sea in the whole world is much wider."
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says spinner and spotted dolphins - the two species hunted in the Solomons - are not vulnerable or endangered.
But a recent report for the Royal Society on the Solomons hunt recommended more research to determine the impact on local populations of the killing of about thousand dolphins a year.
Regardless, the Solomon Islands government is sensitive to negative publicity over the issue - and says the rest of the world is moving away from the practice.
Tourism Minister Bartholomew Parapolo is not from a dolphin hunting community.
"Killing of dolphins must stop, it's not really what the world today needs."
Bartholomew Parapolo says developing a tourism industry trading on culture is an economic priority for what is one of the world's poorest countries, but some kastom must be sacrificed.
"It is no longer really important what's happened before. The dolphin teeth for this kastom money. Now things change, the belief now is to protect the dolphins and redirect to tourism activities."
The Solomons banned live dolphin exports for aquariums two years ago, after international pressure.
Hopes are the dolphin chase will be able to continue, but instead have tourists swim with the animals after they're rounded up, and not be killed.
Tourism Minister Bartholomew Parapolo is excited at the prospect.
"Other parts of the world, they train dolphins for tourists to see. This one is different, They go out and catch the will dolphins, come into the harbour, and you can enjoy the dolphin, the wild dolphin not the trained. And this is amazing."
The government is offering communities cash incentives to stop killing but that has failed before.
Ethel Sigamanu's Fanalei community saw family set against family when they agreed to a similar deal with United States-based environmental group Earth Islands about four years ago.
"It's a resource and it has a special place community, and people who don't have teeth are made fun of. 'How come you are from Fanalei and you don't have teeth? That's unthinkable'.
Disputes over the distribution of the compensation money to stop the dolphin kills saw the deal fall apart.
The Tourism Minister has visited the Bita'ama community and promised Emmanuel Tigi financial help to set up an industry there.
"I question the people, 'How long we wait?', and they say, 'If the government give the money according to its promise and build our accommodation, eco-tourism or swim with the wild, then we will agree'. If the government of the day not prove his words, we are going to go hunting again."
For others like Ethel Sigamanu, culture will not be compromised by money or the standards of foreigners.
"We feel it's an insult. How dare you come an ask me to change my culture. We are not doing commercial hunting for dolphins. It's part of our tradition. Killing a few dolphins to meet our basic needs and to ensure our culture is maintained in the long run, these are things we can't compromise."
Share
