HONIARA, Solomon Islands (17 Jan 2009) — Notorious dolphin slave trader Chris Porter shipped 11 more dolphins caught in the Solomon Islands. In a deal estimated to be worth at least USD$660,000, the dolphins were loaded aboard a cargo plane owned by Kuzu Airline Cargo, a Turkish company, and sent to the Philippines. In late December, UPS announced that it would no longer be involved with Porter and had terminated its contract with the "Solomon Islands Mammal Education (sic) Centre", a company owned by Canadian Porter and his local partner, Robert Satu. Last month, Porter, the former head trainer at the Vancouver Aquarium, sent seven dolphins to the Philippines. In 2003, CDNN reported that Porter sold 28 dolphins to a tourist attraction in Cancun, Mexico. At least 12 of the dolphins died after they were shipped from the Solomon Islands to Cancun on a chartered DC-10 from Brazil. Following protests by CDS (Cyber Diver Society) and other conservation activists around the world, the government of the Solomon Islands banned the live dolphin export trade. But with millions of dollars in easy profits at stake, Porter and Satu allegedly put key local officials on retainer and in December 2007, they won a court decision to resume their dolphin export business. The dolphins are sold for about USD$60,000 per animal, of which 25 percent is paid to the government. | 
