which put two customers in the emergency ward.

The detailed report, which primarily covered the Hurricane Gert debacle in which four animals were lost, said trainers were unprepared to deal with bites and tried to play them down.

It said: "At least two paying customers of Dolphin Quest Bermuda are known to have been bitten by dolphins, during scheduled encounters, seriously enough to require medical attention at the hospital emergency ward.

"In one case Dolphin Quest refused to pay medical bills insisting that the customer's hand had `inadvertently come into contact with the dolphin's mouth'.

"In another, which resulted in severe laceration to the arm, bills were paid with apologies that `she scratched you'.'' The report also stated: "This raises the question of how safe dolphin encounters are particularly for children ... and to what degree the obvious wish of Dolphin Quest Bermuda to downplay such incidents should be allowed to interfere with their obligation to deal with them responsibly.'' Dolphin Quest spokesman Chris Heslop denied the company had tried to downplay the dolphin bites and said hospital bills were covered by the company's insurance.

He said: "The accidents were some years ago.'' He also noted that one of the bites had occurred after a person dropped a fish she was giving to a dolphin.

"As they tried to retrieve it, the dolphin grabbed it and bit the person on the arm. As far as I know medical attention wasn't refused by us. We said they should seek medical attention.'' He said there was always some risk of injury when people were with animals.

He explained: "There are 900 dog bites a day in the US. People are in the water with the animals at Dolphin Quest but our accident record is lower than 0.001 percent.

"There's a risk with whatever you do in life. It's not like dolphins are going after people. We have first aid kits. Staff have training in CPR and have first aid certificates.'' He said in the first incident medical attention was refused by the injured person.

The Government report also blamed Dolphin Quest for: underestimating the dangers to the animals during hurricanes in the facility at the Whaler Inn site; not foreseeing the danger to the dolphins of the break-up of the floating structures; not activating its emergency plan in time; not having provisions in its emergency plan for vulnerable animals such as calves; and not having sufficient equipment and training to make the plan work.

In the future the firm will have to report unusual incidents to the Fisheries Department, including dolphin bites.

The firm will also have to be licensed by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, rebuild its facility and adopt and rehearse a realistic, flexible emergency plan.

Mr. Heslop said: "Most of the things recommended we have already started implementing. We welcome this report.

"Obviously some things need to be put into the new design to include in the new facility but it will all have to go through the planning process. "We obviously underestimated the seas on the South Shore.'' SEA