Every year up to 15,000 dolphins suffer an extremely painful death in Peruvian waters. Despite a ban on cetacean hunting, local fishermen continue to harpoon dolphins and use their flesh as shark bait. Together with its partner organisation Mundo Azul, OceanCare wants to stop this brutal hunt. In 2016, the two NGOs will release a documentary on dolphin hunting in Peru.

On their boats, the hunters wait in ambush for the dolphins. They rely on the curiosity of the animals that are unsuspectingly approaching the boat where the hunters wait to harpoon them at close range. When they hit a dolphin, they just let it swim bleeding on the harpoon line. As soon as the dolphin is devitalised, it is pulled into the boat, beaten to death and dismembered. The pieces of flesh are mainly used as shark bait, but a considerable amount of the dolphin meat is sold illegally on Peruvian markets for human consumption.

BRUTAL, ILLEGAL, AND ABSURD

Peru banned dolphin hunting in 1997. However, it is an open secret among Peruvian fishermen that this ban is largely ignored. The numbers of dolphins killed are higher here than anywhere else in the world. According to a conservative estimate by Mundo Azul, every year about 15,000 dolphins are killed by shark hunters. Mundo Azul president and biologist Stefan Austermühle is fighting this intolerable situation in cooperation with OceanCare. In 2013, he filmed the brutal treatment of dolphins. What he witnessed at sea was beyond his worst expectations. As long as the Peruvian government does not punish illegal killing of dolphins, the fishermen will continue to abuse marine mammals as cheap bait. Fresh fish – the preferred prey of sharks – is more expensive.

DOLPHINS AND SHARKS URGENTLY NEED PROTECTION IN PERU

OceanCare and Mundo Azul are advocating stricter hunting laws that are rigorously enforced in Peru. Further, the organisations call for severe prison sentences for offenders, and for a ban on owning harpoons. OceanCare and 33 partner organisations presented these and further demands to president Ollanta Humala in 2013. In 2015 OceanCare stepped up public pressure on the Peruvian government, amongst others by calling on people to send protest postcards to the Peruvian embassy. Further, OceanCare together with other international wildlife and species conservation organisations launched an online protest addressed to the president of Peru.

OceanCare is also working towards these goals within all relevant international fora: In 2015, targeting both Peruvian officials worldwide and relevant fisheries and species conservation conventions, we campaigned for enforcement of the existing ban on hunting, and for a ban on harpoons in Peru. Mundo Azul already documented what fishermen do to dolphins and sharks at sea. Now they are working to further identify traders illegally selling dolphin meat for human consumption.

DOCUMENTARY AS A TURNING POINT

The courageous undercover research by Stefan Austermühle in 2013 yielded extensive footage that will, together with additional shoots, be made into a documentary in 2016 in order to raise consciousness in Peru and in the public worldwide, and finally to make the Peruvian government act.
 
A peaceful relationship to marine mammals can certainly not be brought about by pressure alone. In the long run, OceanCare and Mundo Azul want to win the fishermen’s support for dolphin protection and sustainable fisheries. Continuing to raise awareness shall yield a change in attitudes. The fishermen have to comprehend the dolphins’ suffering, and to learn how to get their catch without dolphin flesh. There can only be change if it is supported by the population.