Canadian to help Bita'ama Community in North Malaita benefit from dolphins

A Canadian Chris Porter has shown interest to help the people of Bita'ama in North Malaita to benefit from dolphins they catch.

Mr Porter had been in the country for the past seven years and had established the Solomon Islands Mammal Education Centre and Exporters company in Ngela, Central Province.

He told SIBC News that he has just returned from Bita'ama where he provided advise on how to look after the dolphins that the people there have caught.

Mr Porter also says he wants to facilitate a market for the dolphins for the people there.

He appeals to other communities in the country that know how to catch dolphins to be wait until the Bita'ama Dolphin project is a success.

"Because if the dolphins at Bita'ama are a success, that means dolphins at every other communities can be a success. If the dolphin project at Bita'ama does not work out, because people don't cooperate, or too many dolphins, we lose a big opportunity for Solomon Islands to develop itself. This is a small rural community that is facing a real opportunity for development, not from grants, not from aid money, but from their own tradition and from their own hard work."

Source: SIBC