Three bottlenose dolphins were released from an Indonesia sanctuary Saturday, three years after they were rescued from a resort in Bali.
The three dolphins were captured in Indonesia and spent years performing in traveling circuses until they ended up in a small, chlorinated swimming pool at a resort hotel in north Bali, according to the Dolphin Project. The dolphins, Johnny, Rambo, and Rocky, were rescued by the Umah Lumba Rehabilitation, Release and Retirement Center in 2019.
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“It was an incredibly emotional experience to see them go,” Lincoln O’Barry, the campaign’s coordinator at the Dolphin Project, told the Associated Press.
The rehabilitation facility was set up by the Indonesian government in Banyuwedang Bay and is overseen by the Dolphin Project.
Lincoln O’Barry is the son of the project’s founder Ric O’Barry, 82, who started the project in 1970 after seeing the toll on dolphins. Ric O’Barry trained dolphins on the set of the TV series Flipper before seeing the damage it caused to dolphins. Both men were at the release.
Over the past few months, all three dolphins had mostly been catching their own fish, using sonar to hunt and capture prey. Most of their time was spent underwater, as opposed to the 90% of the time captive dolphins spend on the surface of the water, according to the project.
Dolphin_Project: Johnny, Rocky and Rambo’s first moments heading towards the open sea, and a look at their journey up to this point. Read more at: https://t.co/Aw3Ags90G0#UmahLumba #BKSDABali #DolphinProject pic.twitter.com/V4lRo8TQQe
— Fins and Fluke ?? (@FinsandFluke) September 6, 2022
Johnny, the eldest of the group, was the first to leave the center. Johnny had experienced skin damage, a pectoral fin injury, a cornea injury, was malnourished, and had worn-down teeth that went below his gum line before his rescue. But Johnny received dental crowns this summer that now allow him to catch his own fish, according to the project.
“They turned back around and came back to us one more time,” O’Barry said. “Almost to say thank you and goodbye. And then, they headed straight out to open ocean and disappeared.”
Rambo and Rocky were also malnourished and underweight when they were brought to the facility, but they are back to a healthy weight.
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The dolphins will now be tracked with GPS for approximately a year, the project said, as they get used to being back in the ocean. Boats from the facility will be sent out daily to monitor the dolphins for the first 90 days.
