The calls of a Konkoko shell took the dolphin hunters out of beds. Under the moon, six men were thrown into the village church.
There a priest whispered in a prayer, his voice was barely heard on the sound of the waves gap; The tide was great that day. Salt waters, Fanali gathered in the village on the island, a land-specking inside the southeast of Solomon Islands.
Before the first light was released in wood canoes, cut from the dark until it reaches a mile from the shore. After scanning the horizon, one of the hunters saw Lesley Festy, slice of glass water. He raised a bamboo pole with a length of 10 meters long with a fabric associated with the end, warning to others of his discovery. Then he made a phone call to his wife. He found dolphins. Hunting would begin.
These men are among the latest dolphin hunters in Salomon Islands. Some preserves say that the massacre is cruel and useless. But for Fanaleik 130 residents, the usual hunting has been renovated in need while the climate change threatens his home. They say that dolphins need to be used for teeth, used as local currencies, to escape the land to buy land and sink home.
Each tooth 3 dollars of Solomon Islands ($ 0.36) – The price set by fanaleic leaders – and a single 200 dolphin hunting can lead to thousands of thousands of dollars, more than any other economic activity on the island on the island.
“We’re sorry, also to kill dolphins, but we don’t have the opportunity,” said Mr. Funik. He would be ready to cancel hunting, he added, if there were an alternative way to ensure the future of his family.
The crop cannot grow more to Fanales, one third of the Central Park in New York City. Once the fertile territory is ruined by catching salty water. The government has promoted the alga-agricultural revenue as a source of revenue, as they offer money to end the hunting of foreigners abroad. But the ocean remains a threat to existential and the most profitable resource of the citizens. Government research suggests that the island could be flooded at the end of the century.
“For the low island like ours, we are witnessed with our eyes, how the sea rise affects our lives,” Wilson said the main heads of Fanalei.
Over time, dolphins have had to pay a new church, a marine wall and a local primary education extension.
While January, January through April, here people die a thousand dolphins, but the hunters say that the weather is getting more and more difficult and harder.
While dolphin meat eats food, betel nuts and other products, teeth are the real prize of hunting. They are used for cultural activities, and the families of potential range buy hundreds of women in a traditional price of the bride.
In recent years, most citizens have escaped an adjacent island. From there they continue to hunt dolphins, saying that they need to buy more lands that remain behind and protect the growing population.
Dolphin hunting is a community account. When Mr. Funi had lifted his flag that morning, he put the cachophone enjoyment. Children raised trees to watch hunters and encourage “kirio” – dolphins in four local languages - so every resident knows that he started hunting. The canno men hang the waves hanging near the coast, they broke the open ocean, hunters to help form a circle around dolphins and scroll to the ground.
Teeth, once collected, are shared among all families according to a sharp level: hunters get the highest share (the first prize “); Those who did not participate in married men achieve the most next part; And the rest of the teeth are divided between widows, orphans and other houses without a man representative.
Country leaders have also set aside a part of the teeth for those who call “community basket” for important work. One day, they hope to buy lands, to expand the town of restoring the South Malaita to the great island.
These shares have been an important security network for residents like Eddie fire and his family. Once the Lord fire was a skilled fisherman and a dolphin hunter was two years ago when he stopped his neck and has since bedtime. These days, on the high tide, the floods of the house.
“We must be afraid of these floods, because what to save our lives,” he said, watching salty water on the sides of the bed.
The dolphin hunting is very good or “good”, Florence Bobo, Florence Bobo, said in the local pajin language, especially as his husband could do once his family once. They both hope to finally have enough money to move from the island.
“If we didn’t have the dolphin teeth, we wouldn’t have another chance to eat rocks,” Mr. fire joking.
But successful hunting is never certainty. After seeing the dolphins, Mr. Fun and other hunters began to beat the rocks of the fist under the water to move to the shore. But behind the trainer passed, the roar of the engine drowned the sad thud of his rocks. Scattered by dolphins and men returned empty hands.
In the half-way through this season, there was only one successful hunting in the Solomon Islands, where the people around Fanal killed more than 300 dolphins.
Experts say, there is no clear and not whether it is a permanent dolphin hunt. Rochelle Constantine, Solomon Islands, teaches marine biologists, climate and environmental researchers who teach. But the effects of hunting are not light coasts and smaller dolphins.
For the people of Fanaleik, the prosperity of the question is not the future of dolphins – is their survival in front of the sea rise.
“Dolphin hunting can be our identity,” Mr. Funik said, “But our lives and lives of our children – that is important.”
2025-03-26 04:01:00
