The fate of 17 dolphins at the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Louisiana that were left homeless after hurricane Katrina and are supposed to be on their way to Atlantis is now in the hands of the courts.
According to The Associated Press, a court order is preventing Marine Animal Productions, the company that owns the dolphins, from moving them.
MAP has asked the Harrison County Chancery Court to rescind an order that prohibits it from selling its assets, including the dolphins. No hearing date has been scheduled.
The Oceanarium’s 17 surviving dolphins have been kept in several temporary pools at the Naval Construction Battalion Centre and sites in Florida and New Jersey since Hurricane Katrina destroyed the facility on August 29.
MAP president David Lion said on Wednesday that Atlantis personnel were on site “to familiarise themselves with the animals”.
The dolphins’ fate is at the centre of a lawsuit between, the two owners of MAP, Donald Jacobs and Dr Moby Solangi, former president of Marine Life.
The suit involves a dispute over the percentage of, Solangi’s stock ownership and the animals’ future. Rusty Walker, a spokesman for a local group called ﾠSave Our Dolphins, claimed Lion is trying to move the dolphins to the Bahamas with specialised marine care because some are sick with Morbillivirus.
Walker said the virus has never appeared in the Atlantic Ocean and the arrival of Gulfport’s dolphins to the Bahamas could introduce the disease.
“Once they are taken out of the country we’re not sure the courts would have any jurisdiction,” Walker said. “The current management at MAP has no apparent experience in marine mammal care and yet they seem to be making animal-care decisions.”
Thirteen of the dolphins were originally supposed to go to the Dolphin Research Centre in the Florida Keys until the Gulfport Oceanarium was rebuilt, said Kimberly Perron, spokeswoman for the DRC.
Source: ﾠThe Tribune; Nassau, Bahamas
