During 2012 and early 2013 BlueVoice, working with ORCA/Peru, confirmed widespread hunting of dolphins in Peru. I personally traveled to Peru in March and December of 2012. And in 2013, BlueVoice funded surveys that document the widespread hunting and consumption of dolphin all along the coast of Peru.

Dolphin-hunting fishermen pour pesticides and other toxic chemicals into the water to immobilize the dolphins to make them easier to catch. They apparently are unaware that this cruel technique means that any meat eaten from such a dolphin would be extraordinarily contaminated and dangerous.

Based the gravity of this situation in Peru we have determined the best way to end this practice is to bring the facts to international organizations such as the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission and the Convention on Migratory Species.

I worked in Peru as a Peace Corps volunteer and have great empathy for the many poor and hungry people. But the solution to the poverty is not killing and eating dolphins. It is to initiate sound fishing practices and restore one of the world’s most productive fisheries.

Dolphin meat is highly contaminated with heavy metals and organic pollutants such as PCBs. It should not be consumed as food. Villagers who do eat it have an extraordinary level of diabetes, a disease associated with ingestion of high levels of pollutants.

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