Prior to Underwater World Singapore's (UWS) closure in 2016, the marine animals attraction said they found new homes in regional facilities for all its aquatic animals, including its resident seven pink dolphins.

In April this year, however, environmental activists who visited the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Zhuhai, China, where five of them were supposedly sent, reported that only four could be found there.

Now, it's been additionally revealed that two of the seven never even left our shores.

Where are the pink dolphins?

According to The Straits Times, the two pink dolphins are believed to be Speedy and Han (seen in the Facebook post above), who has skin cancer.

Trade data published in October 2017 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) showed that only five live pink dolphins were exported last year.

After refusing to earlier this year, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) finally confirmed that it had only issued five exporting permits for pink dolphins to UWS — which additionally verifies the fact that the two never left.

And, as we mentioned earlier, of the five that were sent to Zhuhai, only four were accounted for earlier this year.

Animal lovers concerned

Sea Shepherd, an international marine conservation group that has been monitoring the pink dolphins, were the first to report the discrepancies between publicly-released information and their observations and investigations on the ground.

In a Facebook post on Friday, the group said,

"Since only four dolphins can be verified to be alive in the Zhuhai facility, we are very concerned for the welfare of the fifth. Is it being used for breeding, scientific experiments, or dead?

And what happened to the two dolphins that were not exported?"

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The move to transfer the dolphins to overseas facilities in 2016 was also heavily criticised by marine animal lovers and experts.

In a June 2016 report, Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (ACRES) chief executive and Nee Soon MP Louis Ng was concerned about the stress the animals were subjected to during the transfer and had hoped for other Singapore wildlife attractions to take in the remaining animals at UWS. 

Sea Shepherd’s Singapore coordinator James Chua also voiced out that the dolphins should have been rehabilitated for release or moved to a sanctuary, as there is no guarantee the animals would be able to adapt to their new environment and survive.

Threatened with extinction

According to CITES, the pink dolphin is categorised under Appendix I — species that are threatened with extinction.

Here's another post to check out next:

https://mothership.sg/2017/04/by-the-way-3-pink-dolphins-from-the-now-closed-underwater-world-are-unaccounted-for/

Top photo via Sea Shepherd Singapore's Facebook page