However, on the protesting side, this is beginning to change, with nearly all Panamanian animal welfare groups and activists coming together in a united front against the capture of these beautiful creatures. They have also been joined by several prominent Panamanian figures who are in full support of the protest. There include the Mayors of Panama City and Bocas del Toro, who have both publicly spoken out against the project. The first organised protest only brought around 3 dozen protestors together to state their case, however on March 15, the second was a totally different story with more than 500 people coming together, with placards and a lot of inflatable dolphins!!

A spokesperson from Ocean Embassy responded to these protests, saying that they were doing nothing, other than boosting the sales of plastic dolphins, and that they will continue with the project. They have reportedly applied for a permit to capture 80 dolphins, which many see as suspicious as the facility that they are opening could not even hold half of this. Many people believe that they are opening this as a way to get the permit, so that they can then export the dolphins to facilities in other parts of the world where they cannot gain permits to capture the creatures. Further speculation has come to the conclusion that there may be 3 plants due to open in Panama, and that they could be used to captively breed dolphins for export. With each dolphin being worth $100,000 on the export market, there would be alot of money to gain from such a project, which is bound to meet even more protests than current.