VivirLatino

Dolphin Killer Caught on Video

15:23 H | Topics: Brazil - Environment

There's nothing funny about killing dolphins but someone apparently forgot to tell that to a crew of Brazilian fishermen who were captured on video killing 83 dolphins. The video, broadcast on Brazilian television last night, showed the fishermen netting the dolphins causing the marine mammals to suffocate because they could not surface to breathe. A researcher went undercover aboard the fishing boat to monitor hauls of other fish.

The dolphin kill was filmed while the boat was off the coast of Amapa state, near the point where the Amazon River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. As the dolphins were hauled from the sea and piled on the boat's deck, fishermen on board laughed after someone said, "Everyone's going to jail after this filming!"

What's really funny in a sad way is that no one has been charged or fined because authorities were still trying to identify the fishermen caught on video.

What do fishermen do with dead dolphins? A lot apparently. Fishermen usually sell the meat to other boats that use it to haul up sharks. Other parts of the dolphins like dolphin jaws complete with all the teeth are sold in an open air market in the large Amazon city of Belem, and the eyes are also sold as fetishes to men who believe they have magical powers attract riches and women. Dolphins' penises are ground into a powder thought to make men more virile.

Killing dolphins is a criminal act in Brazil punishable by up to a year and a half in prison. Ibama is working on a plan to ban fishing in the areas where the dolphins were killed

Via / CNN

Related

• Protesters Arrested at RATM Concert After Impromptu March (Thursday, Sep 04 2008)
• Opening this Weekend in NYC & LA : Trouble the Water (Friday, Aug 22 2008)