Shrinking Dollar Meets Its Match In Dolphin Teeth - WSJ.com
April 30, 2008
PAGE ONE
Shrinking Dollar
Meets Its Match
In Dolphin Teeth
Solomon Islands Prize
Commodity Over Cash;
Closing In for the Kill
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV
April 30, 2008; Page A1
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HONIARA, Solomon Islands -- Forget the euro and the yen. In this South Pacific archipelago, people
are pouring their savings into another appreciating currency: dolphin teeth.
Shaped like miniature ivory jalapeños, the teeth of spinner dolphins have facilitated commerce in parts
of the Solomon Islands for centuries. This traditional currency is gaining in prominence now after years
of ethnic strife that have undermined the country's economy and rekindled attachment to ancient
customs.
Over the past year, one spinner tooth has
soared in price to about two Solomon
Islands dollars (26 U.S. cents), from as little
as 50 Solomon Islands cents. The official
currency, pegged to a global currency
basket dominated by the U.S. dollar, has
remained relatively stable in the period.
Even Rick Houenipwela, the governor of
the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands,
says he is an investor in teeth, having
purchased a "huge amount" a few years
ago. "Dolphin teeth are like gold," Mr.
Houenipwela says. "You keep them as a
store of wealth -- just as if you'd put money in a bank."
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Shrinking Dollar Meets Its Match In Dolphin Teeth - WSJ.com
Few Solomon Islanders share Western humane sensibilities about the dolphins. Hundreds of animals are
killed at a time in regular hunts, usually off the large island of Malaita. Dolphin flesh provides protein
for the villagers. The teeth are used like cash to buy local produce. Fifty teeth will purchase a pig; a
handful are enough for some yams and cassava.
The rising value of dolphin teeth, Mr. Houenipwela says, is explained in part by the need to heal the
wounds of the country's ethnic conflict. According to local custom, tribal disputes over lost lives or
property can often be settled by paying compensation -- in teeth rather than dollars.
Buying Brides
Another reason, Mr. Houenipwela says, is the rapidly growing
population of young men who need dolphin teeth for buying
brides -- the biggest financial transaction in many Malaita
islanders' lives. Teeth are the currency of choice for this
payment: one healthy bride costs at least 1,000 teeth. That
necessitates the killing of dozens of dolphins. Local spinner
dolphins yield more than 20 teeth, each about an inch long.
While originally restricted to Malaita, the tooth frenzy has
spread all over this former British protectorate of 500,000
people, Mr. Houenipwela says. Ethnic Malaitans -- about one
third of the country's population -- are known for their
commercial prowess. They dominate the nation's capital city
of Honiara, on the rival island of Guadalcanal, and have also
settled throughout the country.
On a recent morning, a skinny 24-year-old named Sharon
Faisi sat in the Honiara waterfront hut of her future father-inlaw, Robert Satu, examining several strings of dolphin teeth that are usually kept out of sight in plastic
jars. "It's better than dollars. It lasts longer and has more value than money," she said, beaming as she
counted the teeth. Mr. Satu, 56, explained that he needs to collect a total of 5,000 teeth for the double
wedding of his two sons in July next year.
To obtain the valuable commodity, Mr. Satu orders directly from a remote dolphin-hunting village in
Malaita, communicating via a radio in that village's Anglican church. (Many clerics of the Melanesian
Brotherhood, the Solomon Islands' Anglican community, wear their crucifix pendants on dolphin-tooth
necklaces.) Other city dwellers without such connections resort to intermediaries like Henry Sukufatu, a
dolphin hunter who says he sells about 1,000 teeth a month at his stall on a trash-strewn beach in
Honiara's grimy outskirts.
As the demand for dolphin teeth has increased, the supply can't keep up, he laments: "People want more
teeth, and it's not that easy to get dolphins. It's a very tiring job."
Malaita Dolphin Hunts
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Shrinking Dollar Meets Its Match In Dolphin Teeth - WSJ.com
Organized on particularly calm days several times a year, Malaita dolphin hunts are complicated
endeavors, involving dozens of villagers and a flotilla of paddle boats. When a pod of dolphins are
spotted frolicking in the ocean, the boats approach them in a semicircle. Then, fishermen start pounding
stones and coconut shells under water, producing a rhythm that drives the dolphins into a trancelike
state. As the boats close in on the pod, the noise pushes the dolphins toward a particularly swampy
stretch of the shore.
"The dolphins see it's dark underneath, think it's deep water, dive and get stuck in the mud," says Mr.
Sukufatu. "To subdue them, we cover the breathing hole in their heads with our palms, and push them
deeper and deeper into the mud."
Once the dolphins are nearly suffocated, hunters tie strings around their snouts, so as not to damage the
teeth in the thrashing, and then hack off their heads with machetes. Then, the teeth are divided among
the hunters, while the meat goes to feed the rest of the village, Mr. Sukufatu says.
The tradition has deep roots. Dolphin teeth and other animal products were used as currency in the
Solomon Islands and other parts of Melanesia long before European colonizers arrived here in the late
19th century.
Robert Satu, pictured with his future daughter-in-law, is collecting dolphin teeth
for the double wedding of his two sons.
An exhibit of traditional money
in the central bank's lobby
displays the now-worthless
garlands of dog teeth. Curled pig
tusks have played a similar role
in the neighboring nation of
Vanuatu and parts of Papua
New Guinea. Whale, rather than
dolphin, teeth were collected in
Fiji. While the use of these
traditional currencies is dying
off elsewhere in the region,
there is no sign of the boom in
dolphin teeth abating here. Mr.
Houenipwela, the central bank
governor, says that some
entrepreneurs have recently
asked him for permission to
establish a bank that would take
deposits in teeth.
A dolphin-tooth bank with clean, insect-free vaults would solve the problem of tooth decay under
inappropriate storage conditions, and would also deter counterfeiters who pass off fruit-bat teeth, which
resemble dolphin teeth, for the genuine article. Mr. Houenipwela, however, says he had to turn down the
request because only institutions accepting conventional currencies can call themselves banks under
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Shrinking Dollar Meets Its Match In Dolphin Teeth - WSJ.com
Solomon Islands law.
Recognizing the power of Malaita's dental tradition, Solomon Islands environmentalists -- who loudly
protested the recent export of several dozen live dolphins to an aquarium in Dubai -- usually refrain
from criticizing the slaughter. "People are keen on keeping their culture, and this includes the traditional
harvesting of dolphins," says Julia Manioli, fisheries policy officer at the Honiara office of WWF. "It
would not be possible for someone from outside to come in and tell them to stop."
Some Western environmentalists tried, but to no avail. Recently, Mr. Sukufatu says, "white people"
visited his stall, trying to offer him and some of his colleagues from Malaita a large sum of money if
they would pledge to stop killing dolphins. The offer was quickly rebuffed, he says: "The white man's
money will end, but the dolphin teeth will always be there for us."
Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at [email protected]
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