“Can dolphins who are captive-born be successfully released into the wild?”

source

I traveled 5 hours to hear his answer to my question. I would have traveled 5000.

I have always agreed with the notion that wild mammals cannot forget millions of years of instinct in just one generation of captivity. I have been searching for proof of a dolphin that would debunk Seaworld’s myth.

Seaworld always claimed “A captive-born dolphin could never survive in the wild!”

You know what they say about ” Never”

Ric O’Barry does.

As the founder of The Dolphin Project, he never says never to saving a dolphin, any dolphin, anywhere…

This time he was in Las Vegas on Thursday to help Founder Shelly Rae of the The Mojave Dolphins screen The Cove, followed by a Q & A with the beloved dolphin warrior. More on that, the protest and my interview with him in my follow-up.

After a well-deserved standing ovation, the questions were read. O’Barry was dapper in his all-black suit and converse all-stars. His answers were informative, inspiring and direct.

Soon my question came up, and the information I had been searching for was within my grasp:

Cetacean News Network –
“Can dolphins who are captive-born be released successfully into the wild?”

Ric O’Barry –
“There is a dolphin by the name of Annessa who is seen all of the time between Key Largo and Tavernier. She escaped from the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key, Florida.

Anessa was born in captivity… Although they say it can’t be done and I’ve never released one born into captivity, I think it’s possible under the right circumstances”

I heard the gasps in the audience. Thank you Mr. O’Barry. Another myth busted.

This dolphin proved you don’t have to be from the wild to know that’s where you belong.

Without any prior training, Annessa went into the wild and never looked back…

In Ken Balcomb’s report on Successful Cetacean Releases, he recounts Anessa’s events:

“Annessa, a captive-born Atlantic bottle-nose dolphin held at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, disappeared and was feared lost during a hurricane in August, 1992. Annessa survived the hurricane, however, and was adopted by a pod of wild dolphins. She has been sighted numerous times – healthy and foraging on her own.
One dolphin; Captive since birth; followup successful.”

According to Ceta-Base Annessa escaped on August 23 1992. The culprit was Hurricane Andrew.

But the incredible thing is that she survived through 2 more hurricanes that swept through that area following her escape.

Hurricane Andrew bearing down on Florida on August 23, 1992. … Later, Hurricane Katrina (August 25) passed through South Florida and Hurricane Rita (September 20) swept through the Florida Keys . Source

During Annessa’s time in captivity, according to her captives, this was her life and her dismal future:

“…when Rodriguez left with his bucket of fish, both Nat and Annessa swam back into their pens. We’d been standing in open water with the dolphins. They could have chosen to swim into the Gulf of Mexico, but apparently, they preferred their human friends and the place that has been home for many years.” – Source

…until the opportunity to escape, that is.

Annessa was 11 when it happened. Before then she is described as being shy. As onereporter from The Pittsburg Press recounts during a visit in 1990:

Maybe she was plotting her escape instead of getting more dead fish for kisses?

That’s the owner planting a wet one of his “stock” of dolphins.

The Dolphin Research Center is a dolphinarium under the guise of research on Grassy Key, Florida. The 90,000-square-foot series of saltwater lagoons carved out of the shoreline. They have 8 different dolphin encounters daily, none of which are educational or based on research.

Strangely enough, they also have cats.

Cats are known to be dangerous in transmitting disease to dolphins. Their presence is a risk to the dolphins health and welfare, but this isn’t about science this is about entertainment, greed and animal abuse cloaked to promote conservation.

Above caption is on their site: “Others have joined the family for a variety of reasons” some of which are hunting and capturing for greed-based businesses like this one.

DRC feature their dolphins on their site with only one mention of Annessa. They have a way of putting it that is biased and incorrect, except the first two sentences:

Unfortunately for the facility, Ric O’Barry just confirmed the opposite:

“Annessa is seen all the time between Key Largo and Tavernier.”

And according to The United States Marine Mammal Inventory Annessa was a captive born dolphin who was successfully released. And if it’s good enough proof for the US Government, then it’s good enough for me.

The facility does share the stories of their other dolphins, some of which have also moved around on their own during rough weather conditions.

“MY STORY:
A.J. is quite a character. The explorer of DRC, he has boldly gone where few have gone before.

When a tornado came through Grassy Key in 1998, A.J. swam over the collapsed fences, around the causeway of land and moved into a new lagoon to live with his girlfriends, Santini and Aleta! A.J. is the proud daddy of Tanner and Luna. “

Maybe they were trying to escape too?

WILD DOLPHINS WHO ESCAPED THE PEN LIFE:

In digging deeper I find a few more dolphins who escaped during poor weather conditions and presumedly survived, although they were already from the wild.

This is testament that captivity does not effect their instincts to be in the wild and forage, even 20 years in captivity one dolphin named Gibbs managed to escape his pen during a hurricane.

Some dolphins escaped only to be trapped again.

On July 18, 1992 , in Key Biscayne, Florida, two escaped dolphins Molly and Lady enjoyed three weeks of freedom before it all ended on a Friday when they were netted by boaters who lured them near a dock using dead fish. The two marine mammals were then loaded into boats and taken back to the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo. Bacall, a third dolphin who swam out of her pen with them, was captured two weeks later.

In Russia, it has been confirmed at least one dolphin (“Dicky”) was successfully released back into the Black Sea.

Ric O’Barry said

“I have released lots of dolphins successfully, it’s possible.”

So why is Seaworld still holding onto the myth that captive-born (or even veteran wild-caught dolphins) cannot be released back into the wild?

We all know the answer.

Let’s all hope some of the dolphins held captive in pens in Taiji are safe during the typhoon that is hitting that area right now. The Dolphin Project video reports from taiji showing swells and stressed out dolphins:

In 2011 when there was another typhoon that hit Taiji, most the dolphins in those pens died, some were “lost”.

I hope this time they ESCAPE.

– Original post by Maral Kalinian for Cetacean News Network

source

ABOUT THE  FOUNDER OF HEALTH NUT NEWS