The Native Iowan

VILLAGERS of Fanalei in South Malaita have caught and slaughtered about 700 dolphins yesterday amidst condemnation by dolphin activists and Earth Island Institute (EII).

The mass capture and slaughter was made after villagers refused to renew the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sealed with EII.The two-year MOU expired in April last year.

Chairman of Fanalei Honiara based association Atkin Fakaia said his people resorted to their normal way of hunting dolphins after EII failed to honour the agreement.

“In the MOU, EII promised to give us $2.4 million, but they only gave us $700, 000,” Mr Fakaia said.

He said people cannot wait because they need money to survive in the local economy.

“They go back to hunting dolphin in order to sell the dolphin teeth and meat to earn money,” he said.

EII director Lawrence Makili blamed the Fanelei-Honiara based association for allegedly misusing the more than $400,000 he gave towards the end of 2011 following a consensus given by people in the village.

He alleged that it was the committee that misused the funds because EII is still waiting for them to surrender their retirements.

Mr Makili said this is the reason why EII agreed to give projects to individual families who applied rather than dishing out hard cash.

However, Makili said because the people have disobeyed and continued to hunt dolphins, EII has no option but to cut the funding.