Several organizations have asked the Ministry of the Environment and the Public Prosecution Service for the Defense of the Environment to stop the construction and operation of a dolphin park owned by the Dolphin Discovery Group in the new Downtown Punta Cana complex. The groups claim that it is breaking the law. The request was made by the Dominican Academy of Sciences, the Dominican Marine Studies Foundation, Jaragua Group, the Institute of Lawyers for Environmental Protection and the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo.
They claim that the operation is violating the resolution that regulates the Management and Exhibition of Marine Mammals in Captivity, the Environmental law and the Protocol of the Cartagena Convention, which prohibits the hunting, capture and mistreatment of dolphins and the resolution on Protected Animals.
Two of the institutions state that they had already contacted the Ministry of the Environment, but as they have received no response they are now resorting to the Superior Administrative Court to settle the issue. They have had two hearings and a third is scheduled for today, Tuesday 16 December 2014.
http://www.diariolibre.com/ecos/2014/12/16/i928271_piden-que-medio-ambiente-detenga-delfinario-punta-cana.html
http://www.academiadecienciasrd.org/noticias/292-posicion-de-la-acrd-y-fundemar-con-relacion-a-la-instalacion-del-delfinario-dolphin-discovery-en-punta-cana-provincia-la-altagracia