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| Photo Credit: AP. |
TOKYO (AP) — Three bottlenose dolphins were released into the open sea in Indonesia Saturday after years of being confined for the amusement of tourists who would touch and swim with them.
As red and
white Indonesian flags fluttered, underwater gates opened off the island of
Bali to allow Johnny, Rocky and Rambo to swim free.
The trio
were rescued three years ago from their tiny pool in a resort hotel to which
they had been sold after spending years performing in a traveling circus.
They
regained their health and strength at the Bali sanctuary , a floating pen in a
bay that provided a gentler, more natural environment.
Lincoln
O’Barry, who worked with the Indonesian government to set up the Umah Lumba
Rehabilitation, Release and Retirement Center, said dolphins are wild animals
that should live free.
“It was an
incredibly emotional experience to see them go,” O’Barrry said.
The center
was initiated in 2019 by the Bali Forestry Department and the Indonesian
Ministry of Forestry. “Umah lumba” means “dolphin” in Indonesian.
For some
time after the gates opened, the dolphins looked at the opening, uncertain of
their next move. But after about an hour, they were on their way, sometimes
jumping over choppy waves.
The
Associated Press watched their release through an online livestream. O’Barry is
documenting the release with drones and underwater footage for a film.
The
Indonesian government supported the dolphins’ rescue, working with Dolphin
Project, founded by Lincoln’s father Ric O’Barry, who was also at the release.
Ric O’Barry
had been the dolphin trainer for the 1960s TV show “Flipper,” but later came to
see the toll exacted on the animals. He has since devoted his life to returning
dolphins to the wild.
Center
workers clapped as the dolphins swam out. Wahyu Lestari, rehabilitation
coordinator at the center, said she was a bit sad to see them go.
“I’m happy
they are free, and they are going back to their family,” she said. “They should
be in the wild because they are born in the wild.”
The freed
dolphins will be monitored out at sea with GPS tracking for a year. They can
return for visits to the sanctuary, although it’s unclear what they will do.
They may join another pod, stay together, or go their separate ways.
Dolphins in
captivity are carted from town to town, kept in chlorinated water, held in
isolation or forced to interact with tourists, often leading to injuries.
Johnny, the
oldest dolphin, had teeth that were worn down to below the gum line when he was
rescued in 2019. Earlier this year, dentists provided him with dolphin-style
dental crowns so that he can now clamp down on live fish.
Johnny was
the first of the three dolphins to swim out to sea.
Ric and
Lincoln O’Barry have spent half a century working on saving dolphins from captivity
in locations from Brazil to South Korea and the U.S. Saturday’s release was
their first in Indonesia.
The
Indonesian government’s decision to rescue the dolphins followed a decade-long
public education campaign that included billboards, artwork, school programs
and a drive asking people not to buy tickets to dolphin shows.
A government
minister was at hand to raise the gate at the sanctuary Saturday.
Lincoln
O’Barry said the Indonesian sanctuary will continue to be used for other
captive dolphins. Similar sanctuaries are in the works in North America and
Europe, as more dolphin shows close. With virtual reality and other technology,
appreciation of nature doesn’t have to involve a zoo or a dolphin show, he
said.
Yet dolphin
shows are still popular in China, the Middle East and Japan.
In Japan,
the father and son have drawn attention to the dolphin hunt in the town of
Taiji, documented in the 2010 Oscar-winning film “The Cove.” Every year,
fishermen frighten and corral dolphins into a cove, capture some to sell to
dolphin shows and kill others for food.
Whale and
dolphin meat is considered a delicacy in Japanese culinary tradition. But Taiji
has prompted protests by conservationists for years, including some Japanese.
The three
dolphins released in Indonesia were soon miles (kilometers) away in the waters.
But before their departure, they circled around the sanctuary.
“They turned
back around and came back to us one more time, almost to say thank you and good-bye.
And then they headed straight out to open ocean and disappeared,” Lincoln
O’Barry said.
“Where they
head next, we don’t know. But we wish them a good long life.”
Yuri
Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama