Twelve wild dolphins died after an Emory University professor launched a campaign against allowing them to be exported from Japan to an adventure park in the Dominican Republic, a lawsuit alleges.

The suit also claims the professor, Lori Marino, plans to interfere with the opening of the Georgia Aquarium’s dolphin exhibit later this year, which Dr. Marino denies.

The adventure park, Ocean World S.A., filed suit in the State Court of DeKalb County against Emory and Dr. Marino, claiming she blocked the park’s purchase of 12 dolphins from the Taiji Whale Museum in Japan. Taiji is the subject of a new documentary, "The Cove," about the slaughter of dolphins by fishermen.

According to the Ocean World lawsuit, the 12 dolphins, dubbed by their advocates as the "Taiji Twelve" had been captured by fishermen for meat. Ocean World, in trying to purchase them, was providing the animals “amnesty from their unfortunate fate,” the suit states.

Dr. Marino “coordinated and organized a campaign to block the export,” of the dolphins to the Dominican Republic, the suit claims. Once the Dominican Republic denied Ocean World’s import permit, the dolphins all died, the suit contends. Three were killed in a typhoon because of transportation delays caused by Dr. Marino's campaign and the other nine were slaughtered for meat by the Taiji  Fisherman’s Union, the lawsuit alleges.

The dolphins "would not have died had the defendants not intervened in Ocean World’s business," according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

In an interview with GlobalAtlanta, Dr. Marino said when she found out two years ago that Ocean World had placed an order for 12 bottlenose dolphins, she wrote two letters to the government of the Dominican Republic urging it not to allow the animals to be imported.

"It was a letter and follow-up letter expressing my opinion," she said. "This is basically a freedom of speech issue. I simply expressed my professional opinion about something that I've published on over the years."

According to its Web site, Ocean World “features the largest man-made dolphin habitat in the world, with the main dolphin pool comprised of 12 million gallons of seawater.” The Web site includes video of guests swimming with the dolphins.

Research has shown that keeping dolphins in captivity is not good for the animals physically or psychologically and shortens their lives, said Dr. Marino, a lecturer in neuroscience and behavioral biology at Emory. "Their lifespans are about half what they are in the natural word," she said.

Dr. Marino said she does not know what happened to the 12 dolphins after the Dominican Republic denied the import application. She also said she has no plans to disrupt the new Georgia Aquarium dolphin exhibit.

Attorneys for Dr. Marino and Emory are seeking to move the lawsuit from DeKalb State Court to U.S. District Court  because the suit includes allegations that Dr. Marino broke federal law by interfering with the park’s contract to buy the dolphins.

“The Cove,” documentary describes how Richard O’Barry, who trained five dolphins for use on the “Flipper”  television show began to question the way dolphins were used in captivity. Since then, he has become an activist in the defense of captive dolphins in places like Sea World. The documentary also reports on the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji by fishermen for meat. Dr. Marino said she had no direct involvement with the documentary, although some of her research is cited in the film.

2010 The Agio Press, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without expressed permission.