SA: Dolphin attacks prompt call for increased policing
By Sam Lienert
ADELAIDE, Aug 18 AAP - The stabbing of two baby dolphins in an Adelaide river was thelatest in a long line of dolphin attacks which could not be prevented without increasedpolicing, a leading dolphin researcher said today.
Australian Dolphin Research Foundation marine biologist Mike Bossley, who is chairinga state government committee looking at establishing a dolphin sanctuary in the Port River,said he was almost certain the attacks, discovered yesterday, were deliberate.
Wounds on the five-month old dolphins, members of the world's only urban pod, showedthey were stabbed with a four-pronged fishing spear.
"I find it very hard to believe that if (the dolphin's attacker) can see a fish tospear they can't see a dolphin, these dolphins are a metre long," Dr Bossley told AAP.
"I assume it was someone out there fishing and they decided to spear a dolphin as well."
Dr Bossley said he had identified about 350 dolphins in the Port River pod, which hesaid was unique in the world.
"They are unique in that they are urban dwellers," he said.
South Australian Premier Mike Rann questioned the intelligence of those responsible.
"Those people are so limited in intelligence that they actually want to go out andkill dolphins," Mr Rann said.
"I hope we can find those responsible and throw the book at them."
Dr Bossley said the calves were recovering from the wounds, which were believed tohave been sustained up to three weeks ago.
But he said there had been many other attacks, sometimes fatal, on the Port River dolphinsin recent years, as well as others that had suffered accidental harm as a result of humanactivity.
Two were shot dead in July 1998, another was shot with a speargun last year, and anotherstabbed in 2000.
Another member of the Port River pod had swallowed a fishing hook and subsequentlystarved to death as it could not eat, while other dolphins had to be rescued from drowningafter being tangled in fishing lines.
There were also several dolphins that had died in infancy, believed to be as a resultof water pollution.
The state government promised before its election in February this year to increasefinancial penalties on those who attacked dolphins, and has also announced plans to establisha sanctuary by the end of this year.
But Dr Bossley said neither move would be successful without increased patrols along the river.
He said the culprits in the latest stabbing attack were unlikely to be caught unlessthey were dobbed in.
"What has to happen apart from fines and regulations, which are very important, isthere has to be some means of enforcing them," Dr Bossley said.
He said he was hopeful increased policing would be part of the sanctuary.
AAP scl/jmd/sb w
KEYWORD: DOLPHIN
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