Saturday, January 21, 2006

New guidelines for feeding dolphins are almost complete

The Queensland Environment Minister says new dolphin feeding guidelines at Tin Can Bay are close to being finalised.

Desley Boyle admits she made a mistake last year when she controversially banned dolphin feeding in the south-east Queensland town.

Residents and tourists defied the ban and the decision was overturned.

Ms Boyle says new guidelines have been developed in consultation with the local cafe owners and will cover things like feeding times.

"My understanding is that the new owners are really keen to have this happen in a friendly and quick way, the guidelines are pretty simple and so I'm hopeful that we'll have them in place within the next month," she said.

"The guidelines really are about pretty simple things, about when the feeding can occur, it needs to at regular times, about the kinds of fish that are suitable for dolphins and about obviously the health arrangements around that to make sure that we're not transmitting any viruses or infections to the dolphins."

Quick "Facts about Dolphins"