Iranian Official Links Dolphins Death to American Espionage – Report

Text of report by Mona Qasemian headlined: “The speculations of the head of Iran’s fishing organization – using dolphins for espionage” published by Iranian newspaper E’temad on 1 November

While according to the research conducted by the Environment Organization, the fishing nets were announced as the cause of death for the 79 dolphins, the head of country’s fishing organization – in reaction to this conclusion – propounded a new possibility in relation to the death of dolphins.

He said, given the fact that these dolphins were not indigenous to the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea, it is possible that Americans had brought these dolphins to the Persian Gulf with the intention of carrying out some experiments on them in order to use them for tracking and tracing purposes. He said that this group of dolphins had not been able to cope with the experiments and added these types of dolphins do not exist in the Persian Gulf and up to 300 miles away from this gulf.

According to a marine environmentalist expert, this is a totally wrong claim and these dolphins do inhabit in the waters of the Persian Gulf. There are even witnesses from those onboard the fishing boat that had caused the death of dolphins who confirm the death of these dolphins were caused by their boat. When this group of dolphins were trapped in the fishing nets, they tried to bite off the nets with their teeth and that’s why the fishermen decided to kill these poor animals by hooks. The fishermen then released their carcasses back into the water.

Fishing dolphins is illegal and the payable fine for fishing each dolphin is 4m Tomans [nearly 2,000 pounds].

Rejecting fishing as the factor causing the recent death of dolphins, the head of country’s fishing organization said water pollution, the spread of waves by warships and submarines or a kind of virus diseases could be the possibilities leading to the death of these dolphins.

Dr Sha’ban-Ali Nezami said the location of Persayner boats was 40 miles away from the shores and added the depth of water for Persayner fishing nets should be 350 metres. On the other hand, the collection of these nets takes around 10 hours during which a dolphin can easily find a way out from the nets thanks to their high intelligence.

Referring that there are currently 9 Persayner boats in the southern shores of the country, the head of country’s fishing organization said the fishing activity of eight of these boats were halted on the 26 Mehr [18 October] of the current year which have been returned to the terminals, but there is still one boat in the sea. According to the Iranian Students News Agency, in relation to suggestions that tuna fish industrial fishing boats were the responsible for the dolphins’ death, he said the fact that the local communities propound this matter is more rooted in the disputes between the fishing community and the Persayners and there is no evidence in this regard. In relation to the lack of having fishing observers onboard the Persayner vessels, he said we do not find it necessary as these boats fish in the sea for about two months and the coastguard unit of the fishing organization controls them at regular intervals.

Referring to the control of boats by fishing organization’s coastguards, the head of country’s fishing organization said in the event where it is proven that any of the Persayner boats were involved in the recent deaths of dolphins, they would definitely be dealt with accordingly and their boats would be impounded.

In relation to other suggestions that there have been traces of hooks on the carcasses of some of the 79 dead dolphins, the head of country’s fishing organization said no one can confirm that these hook holes were created on the bodies of the dolphins before or after their death.

All these comments and remarks take place while an informed official speaking to the Fars news agency has announced that according to the results published by the laboratory of the Veterinary Faculty at Tehran University, the sample dolphin which was dispatched to Tehran had been decayed and putrefied and it was not possible to run a test on them, making it impossible to analyze them. He went on to say, given the putrefied condition of the samples of the dead dolphins, it would be impossible to establish the cause of their death if they were killed as a result of chemical pollution and that the cause of death could only be pursued based on the observations of the locals and experts. This informed official stated that apart from the sample sent to Tehran, the rest of the dead dolphins have been buried.

In response to the question as to whether the chemical cause of these deaths could be diagnosed or not following the dispatch of a decayed sample, he reiterated that environmental experts have cut off some tissues from the bodies of these dolphins at the location they were found on the coasts of Jask, which have been kept for the time being and it is possible to find the cause through these tissues.

With regards to the putrefied condition of the sample dolphin sent to the laboratory, this informed source said, this sample has been frozen in the freezing tunnel with a temperature of less than 30 degrees below zero after reaching the shores and has been floating in ice throughout the whole journey from Hormozgan to Tehran.

But as for the death of the 73 dolphins last week, the head of the Organization for Environmental Protection announced that one of the important and leading probabilities was the effect of radar disruptions on dolphin’s receivers caused by ships and submarines and reiterated the issue of submarines crossing the region and their radar affects on the death of the dolphins is currently being studied. The Shipping Organization and the Convention of Protecting the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea Environment have been asked to provide a three-month report on the movement of oil tankers and ships carrying chemical materials in the region and present it to the Environment Organization.

The head of the Environment Organization said the type of dolphins killed last time were different from the new ones. In relation to inviting foreign experts to Iran for research on this issue, he underlined that we are currently conducting the necessary studies and I do not think that there would be a need to invite foreign experts on this matter as all the necessary expertise is available in Iran.

Originally published by E’temad website, Tehran, in Persian 01 Nov 07.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.