A BERMUDA-based company is at the heart of a row involving animal rights activists in the Caribbean who are protesting over plans to capture dolphins and keep them in a pen to swim with tourists.

Dolphin Fantaseas - not connected in any way with the Dolphin Quest operation at Dockyard - said it wanted to capture 12 dolphins for a site in St. Lucia that it predicts will attract 20,000 to 30,000 tourists a year.

But animal rights activists have attacked the project and claimed that captivity harmed dolphins.

Meanwhile, a representative of Bermuda's own dolphin facility, Dolphin Quest, has said its animals were kept in better conditions than US standards required.

"Dolphin capture is under increasing attack in the rest of the world. They (investors) look at the Caribbean and target us because they think we have no regulations and no information about this kind of thing," said Jane Tipson, president of the St. Lucia Animal Protection Society. Dolphin Fantaseas chief executive officer Lynn Hassell told the Associated Press last week that an initial investment of $1 million would create an annual income of $3 million.

Dolphin Fantaseas operates similar pens in Antigua, Anguilla and Tortola, Hassell said, providing "education and entertainment".

The project in Tortola went ahead despite objections by activists in the British Virgin Islands.

Tipson said St. Lucia activists would take their complaints to the St. Lucia government's Development Control Authority, which is considering an application for the project.

Tipson said dolphins could die in captivity. Hassell said dolphins live as long in the wild as out if it. Scientific studies leave the issue unresolved.

Dolphin Fantaseas is not listed in the Bermuda telephone directory and the Mid-Ocean News was unable to contact anyone from the company.

Bermuda does, however, have one facility where people can swim with dolphins. Dolphin Quest has been in operation for six years and currently has eight dolphins.

General manager Christina Mihelcic said the facility surpassed US requirements in terms of space for the dolphins and that the creatures had daily medical assessments.

"We at Dolphin Quest do everything we can to ensure our dolphins are looked after as well as possible from a safety and health standpoint," said Ms Mihelcic.

"And if procreation is a measure of happiness, then our dolphins are extremely happy. We have had four births.

"There are several regulations we have to abide by to keep dolphins and in terms of US regulations on quality, we are up to speed.

"We actually exceed US regulations in terms of the space available for our dolphins. We have room for 16 dolphins but right now we will not exceed 12. At the moment we have eight dolphins.

"If any animal rights activist is concerned, they can be assured that we take the best care of our animals."

Programmes to swim with dolphins are enjoying a boom in popularity just as debate has grown over whether they harm the creatures. The controversy intensified last year after the death of a recently captured dolphin in Mexico and the discovery of two dolphins abandoned by a travelling show in the mountains of Guatemala.

In St. Lucia, the project is a joint venture involving Dolphin Fantaseas, Minvielle and Chastanet, one of St. Lucia's oldest commercial houses, and prominent businessman Michael Chastanet. The St. Lucians hold 60 per cent of the venture and the Bermuda company 40 per cent.

The proposed investment comes against a dire economic climate in the country, where two major hotels closed last year, already slow tourism slumped after the September 11 terror attacks and last week Tropical Storm Lili destroyed half of the banana crop that is the island's main source of foreign exchange.