Dolphin Johnny, Fitted With Teeth, Swims Free With Friends
Three bottlenose dolphins swam to freedom last week after years of confinement and degradation for the amusement of tourists. The three males – Johnny, Rocky and Rambo – were released off the island of Bali in Indonesia.
All three dolphins had spent their early years in an Indonesian traveling circus, where they were carted from town to town and forced to perform in small plastic pools. Following that misery they were sold to the Melka Excelsior Hotel in North Bali, where the animals were confined to a small pool and forced to interact with tourists, which led to injuries and chronic illnesses.
In 2019 the three were rescued by the nonprofit Dolphin Project and placed in the Umah Lumba Center for extensive rehab. (Umah Lumba is Indonesian for “dolphins.”) The animals were malnourished and underweight; Johnny was fitted with false teeth so he could eat fresh fish.
For three years the trio healed in the clean – and far more spacious – waters of the sanctuary, until they were hale enough to take the big plunge on their own. When the underwater gates were opened up to the wide sea, the dolphins approached the portal but spent about 90 minutes wondering if they really wanted to try life on the outside.
“Finally, at 9:33 a.m. local time, Johnny was the first to go out, leading the way for the other two dolphins to follow,” Dolphin Project noted on their website. “This ‘elder statesman’ swam a few yards into the opening, and then swam to the side of the main pen, where he began communicating with Rocky and Rambo. Within moments, they too swam out of the pen. … Once they crossed the threshold where the bay met the open ocean, they were gone.”
Dolphin Project will be monitoring the trio with tracking tags as well as with daily boat trips along the coast to observe their condition. Educational outreach for local fishermen and other boat operators has informed them to not approach or feed the dolphins, and signage is posted in several coastal villages with a hotline to call if the guys are spotted.
Dolphin Project was founded on the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970 by Ric O’Barry, famed dolphin trainer for the Miami Seaquarium and the television series Flipper. When one of the Flipper dolphins died in his arms, O’Barry realized that capturing dolphins and making them perform tricks is just wrong. The 82-year-old has since devoted his career to saving the creatures he’d once abused.
Donate at dolphinproject.com/donate.
Photo credit: DolphinProject.com
