In the Salomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean a staff member of the Earth Iceland was brutally beaten up probably Institute of Dolphin vessels on the evening of 19 August against 20:30 was Lawrence Makili, town councillor of Honiara on the Salomon Islands and associates of the American environmental organization Earth Iceland Institute (EII), kidnapped his home by eight men out. With two cars, they brought him a few kilometers out of town and brutally beat him up. “Mark Berman of the EII is concerned that the perpetrators tried to kill him: they tried to kill Lawrence Makili, because he committed to his country and the resident dolphins.” Makili had luck in disguise. He escaped with a broken right arm, some Rippenbruchen, facial fractures and bruises. In his homeland, Makili fights not only for the preservation of forests, but also to the fishing and trade with wild dolphins. According to Richard o’ Barry, former Pinball ‘coach and convert dolphin protection and board the organization Save Japan dolphins Coalition”, there are five different dolphins catching teams on the Salomon Islands.
Each of them could be responsible”, he explains. The worldwide trade with dolphins for oceanariums and facilities for swimming with dolphins”is a lucrative business that flourishes in countries without strict conservation laws. The withdrawals jeopardize not only local populations, but can also suffer the marine mammals: many dolphins die at catching or during transport, captive animals have only a low life expectancy. Lawrence Makili feared by the Dolphin catches also losses in tourism. The charismatic sea mammals role in the Solomon Islands, as confirmed by David Phillips, project coordinator in terms of whale protection at the EII,: “the dolphins are in their natural habitat as part of gentle ecotourism for the Islanders worth far more than potential revenue from fishing and export of marine mammals, which only a few traders” benefit at the expense of the Solomon Islands natural heritage.” Makili is working also as a representative of the American Earth Iceland Institute (EII) in the framework of the international of control and inspection programme for dolphin-safe tuna. Under the control program of the EII, the society for the rescue of dolphins (GRD) is responsible for its implementation in Germany, the tuna with the dolphin-safe are about 380 tuna companies recognized all over the world,”catch methods, including three companies in the Solomon Islands. The EII will committed now on the spot, that the perpetrators will be found as soon as possible. There is still in the dark on the identity of the culprits and their motive. There were no arrests so far.