TALES: Dolphin Seizure Turned into Lawsuit
By Ryan Myers, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas
Jun. 4–Flying sea mammals, surly Canadians and U.S. Customs: Enterprise headlines called it Beaumont’s “dolphin caper.”
When bad weather forced John Holer’s chartered airplane full of trained bottle-nosed dolphins to land at the Jefferson County airport, the marine park owner didn’t expect he’d lose most of them to the Gulf of Mexico and end up in federal court.
En route from Campeche, Mexico, in January 1977, the dolphins were to be the latest attraction at Canada’s Marineland and Game Farm, a Sea World-meets-zoo theme park still operating near Niagara Falls.
But when U.S. Customs officials boarded the World War II-vintage DC-3 to discover eight protected sea mammals, it didn’t seem anyone — human or dolphin — would be leaving Beaumont for the Great White North.
The National Marine Fisheries Service was called in, the dolphins and plane were seized and the five Canadians were detained for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, according to Beaumont Enterprise archives.
Customs officials also charged pilot Carl Wesley Millard with failing to get permission to land and failing to report to Customs.
But the ordeal didn’t end there as a county airport full of federal agents scrambled to figure out what to do with eight very large sea creatures out of water.
Calls to Texas marine parks yielded an eager Six Flags of Texas in Arlington, who, according to The Enterprise archives, dispatched a truck to pick up two of the sea mammals.
And the remaining six, 250-pound contraband animals were dumped in the Gulf off Sabine Pass.
The thinking was, officials told The Enterprise afterward, no other domestic marine parks could take the dolphins, and they couldn’t be allowed to continue their illegal journey to Canada, so into the Gulf it was.
Holer told the media he pleaded with federal officials not to release the dolphins into the Gulf for fear it would kill the animals. And he lamented the financial loss — about $10,000 each or more than $200,000 total in today’s dollars, according to a Labor Department inflation calculator.
Nonetheless, officials remained stalwart, the Coast Guard was enlisted and the mammals were released.
All of this happened within about 12 hours on the Friday the dolphins arrived.
Saturday, criminal charges were dropped. The Six Flags plans were scrapped. And the plane, its pilot, crew and two remaining dolphins were released to continue their flight to Canada.
Enterprise editions the following Monday reported emerging second thoughts and regret.
“I imagine everyone’s pretty embarrassed about it all now,” an official involved in the contretemps told The Enterprise for the Jan. 17, 1977, edition.
Holer’s saber rattling grew with invocations of the Geneva Convention, a lawsuit threat and accusations against the U.S. government of “air piracy.”
The park owner said international agreements allowed his pilot to land “anywhere in the Western world in an emergency.”
Federal officials countered that being forced to land because of bad weather didn’t constitute an emergency.
Holer made good on his lawsuit threat, and the U.S. Attorney’s office hung onto civil violations for the impromptu landing and skirting customs, bringing the “flipper case” or “dolphin suit” before U.S. District Judge Robert Parker in July 1982.
Testimony didn’t offer much hope regarding the fate of the six dolphins that found themselves suddenly in the Gulf.
A federal marine fisheries official told the court he went forward with the release plan despite a veterinarian’s warning the animals could go into shock if plunged into chilly January waters.
Charles M. Fuss, special agent with National Marine Fisheries law enforcement, said officials had “committed to a course of action” and didn’t want to appear “indecisive” before news reporters while “debating what to do with the animals,” according to archives.
But Holer lost his claim for $1.35 million dollars in damages and $200,000 for mental anguish.
Of the two dolphins that did escape the Jefferson County airport and arrive in Canada, one died within two weeks and another within two years. Holer attributed both deaths to the stress of their Beaumont layover.
And the judge sided with prosecutors, saying Holer didn’t secure required permits for transporting the dolphins in the United States, and the park owner and his employees were hit with $10,650 in fines for the customs and fisheries law violations.
The judge said dumping the mammals in the Gulf was negligent and violated regulations “requiring the holding of seized marine mammals,” but he ruled the seizures within the law.
What became of the six dolphins dumped off Sabine Pass isn’t clear. But a Texas Parks and Wildlife official told The Enterprise in 1977 the park owner’s cries about their safety were well-founded.
“I talked with the people on the boats who let the dolphins go,” the official said “None of them came up after they were dropped in the water. They probably should have put them in a pool or something before letting them go.”
rmyers@beaumontenterprise.com (409) 880-0736
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