Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Maui mayor
backs dolphin facility
despite boycott threat

---

By Gary Kubota
Star-Bulletin

KIHEI, Maui -- Maui County Mayor James "Kimo" Apana said today he continues to support the relocation of the Dolphin Institute to Maui, despite a threat of an entertainment industry boycott on the Valley Isle.

Apana said the accommodations on Maui will be much better than the facilities for the institute at Oahu's Kewalo Basin.

"I believe the dolphins will be in a better situation than they are now," Apana said.

Apana was responding to a threat from "Free Willy" executive film producer Richard Donner to lead a boycott if the institute relocates to the Valley Isle with its four captive dolphins.

The threat was issued in a letter to Apana that became public during a Maui Planning Commission meeting last night.

The meeting was held to determine whether to grant permits to the 29-acre Maui Nui Park project that includes five to six acres of land for the institute. The commission was expected to make a decision on the project today.

Donner said he felt the four dolphins should be released back into the wild in phases, in a way similar to what happened to the orca Keiko, who was the star of "Free Willy."

Donner said with the help of Earth Island Institute, Keiko is living in an open sea pen in Iceland and slowly being reintroduced into the ocean wilderness after spending more than 20 years in captivity in Mexico.

"In reality, this whale is doing phenomenally," Donner said. "He proves the fact that it can be done."

Dolphin Institute officials have said previous studies show captive dolphins, including the four coming to Maui, are unlikely to survive if released into the wild.

"To release them would be to kill them," said Lou Herman, a University of Hawaii professor and institute co-founder. Herman assured the commission that no other dolphins will be taken from the wild.

About 130 people attended the hearing last night at the Kihei Community Center.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation plans to develop 257,000 square feet of building space and 812 parking stalls at the site, mauka of Suda Store between Piilani Highway and South Kihei Road.

Supporters favoring the proposed park outnumbered the opposition 2-to-1 in testimony.

More than 30 people testified for the Maui Nui Park project and cited the additional jobs and educational benefits it would bring to the community. But 13 people testified against the project, many opposed to the institute's use of captive dolphins in its research.

"What we're talking about is constructing a new prison," said Ryan Shapiro, a coordinator with Animal Rights Hawaii.

About five or six acres of land is being set aside for the Dolphin institute, which plans to build a number of structures, including a one-acre salt water lagoon, an isolation tank, a research building and a learning center.

The plan also calls for a main building housing featuring educational exhibits with restaurants and retail shops, a 500-seat indoor amphitheater and luau garden, wharf and boat ride, wedding chapel, an exhibition hall and an aviary.

Foundation officials hope to attract 1,500 to 2,000 visitors a day.

Kihei Community Association official Barney Eiting said the park will provide jobs and educational opportunities.

Supporters pointed out the Dolphin Institute has assisted more than 30 students to get graduate degrees and the relocation will help to expand the research.

Some residents said they were worried about the flooding that occurs occasionally near Suda Store and about any added traffic at the site, which is at Kihei's entrance.