Maui residents speak against dolphin facility
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — A proposal to outlaw the exhibition of dolphins and whales won overwhelming support yesterday at a Maui County Council committee meeting.
Twenty-five people testified in favor of the bill and none against. Many of those who spoke in the council chambers in Wailuku said the practice of keeping such intelligent mammals in captivity is cruel and immoral.
"Ask yourself this: Would any of you like to spend your life in the space the size of a dolphin tank?'' said Carole Burk of Ma'alaea.
"What crime did the dolphins do to deserve captivity?'' said Native Hawaiian cultural specialist Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr. "Are we God?''
The Human Services and Economic Development Committee meeting was recessed until 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, when more testimony will be accepted.
The measure, introduced by Councilwoman Jo Anne Johnson of West Maui, is aimed at blocking the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu from moving to the Valley Isle and building a new research facility with an exhibition component.
The laboratory's Dolphin Institute plans to build within the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation's proposed $20 million Maui Nui Park in North Kihei, a project that was approved by the Maui Planning Commission a year ago.
Prior to the public testimony, the committee heard from a panel that included speakers on both sides of the issue.
Panel member Paul Nachtigall, director of the University of Hawai'i's Marine Mammal Research Program, said captive marine mammals have played a key role in research and in educating people about marine conservation.
But Hannah Bernard, education director for the Maui Ocean Center aquarium, questioned how useful research in captivity really is.
"Imagine if studies of human behavior, cognition and physiology were based almost entirely on prisoners,'' she said.
No one from the Dolphin Institute appeared at yesterday's hearing, instead choosing to send written testimony.
Dolphin Institute President Louis Herman said in an earlier statement that Johnson's measure would serve only to label the county as "anti-education'' and "anti-research."
Herman previously said the institute would not engage in the kind of public performances seen at Sea Life Park, Sea World and other marine parks. However, plans do call for bleacher-type seating for demonstrations by the dolphins and their trainers.
The planned Maui Nui Park complex includes a plantation village, indoor amphitheater, lu'au garden, wedding chapel, retail shops, wharf and boat rides — as well as the 15,500-square-foot Dolphin Institute facility, which was previously earmarked for completion by late 2002.
