THE bid to take Randy the dolphin to France has been called off - because fed up organisers say the dolphin has been moved by dive boats who are refusing to tell them where he is.

The team from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), led by Ric O'Barry, has abandoned the project to try and guide Randy away from Weymouth and Portland to waters off the coast of Cherbourg, France.

They have left the South Coast, warning the playful adult bottlenose, also known as Georges, could now injure youngsters because of his sexual aggression and fear his attraction to propellers will eventually kill him.

Mr O'Barry said: "Some people are adamant Randy should stay in the area. We are all disappointed and frustrated but when people in dive boats know where he is but don't tell you what can you do?"

The move follows a dirty tricks campaign in which critics of Mr Barry revealed he has a conviction for breaking an American marine mammal protection law.

Mr O'Barry, 62, from Miami, Florida, was found guilty in 1996 of releasing two captive dolphins off the Florida coast which were not prepared to survive in the wild and then sustained life-threatening injuries.

His facility he used to house the animals - the Sugarloaf Dolphin Sanctuary in Florida - was also raided by the American National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

But Mr O'Barry, who trained dolphins for the famous television series Flipper and has worked with them for over 40 years, said today that the conviction was in a civil lawsuit. He said: "What I did was not officially a crime and there was no charges against me."

Mr O'Barry, associate Lloyd A Good III and the Dolphin Project Inc and Sugarloaf Dolphin Sanctuary Inc were fined the maximum penalty, $40,000, by the American government in 1996 for illegally taking by harassment and transporting each of the captive dolphins, named Luther and Buck.

The abandoned plan has been slammed by dolphin book author Robert Barnes, who is planning on visiting Weymouth in the next few days.

Mr Barnes, 50, from West Grinstead, said: "The scheme was bound to fail. If Randy wants to be around Weymouth then he will stay."

Meanwhile, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reports that Randy is lively and well and expressed concern at the WSPA plan, saying: "Randy is a wild animal and should be free to choose where he wants to be."