THE US Navy is good at looking after dolphins 鈥� so good, that by the early 1990s, it was caring for too many of them. In November 1991, the US Congress decided to downsize the navy鈥檚 marine mammals project, which used captive dolphins to tag mines and spot divers. This left the navy鈥檚 marine mammal facility in San Diego, California, with a problem. Letting a captive dolphin 鈥渟wim free鈥� may sound romantic, but in reality, it is about as ethical as kicking a pet dog out of a car.
It took years before the facility agreed on a retraining and potential release programme. On 25 June 1994, we reported that a dolphin sanctuary at Sugarloaf Key, Florida, was keen to take some of the dolphins.
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We foresaw trouble, however: 鈥渢he Navy does not want its dolphins released into the ocean鈥�, our Washington correspondent Vincent Kiernan revealed, as it believed the animals 鈥渕ight not be able to cope with the unaccustomed freedom鈥�. The sanctuary took three dolphins, and Richard 翱鈥橞补谤谤测, an activist who had previously helped train the dolphins used in the TV series Flipper, attempted to prepare them for the wild. But the sanctuary鈥檚 owner, Lloyd Good, believed the release process was simple: you open the gate and
Unhappy with the situation, 翱鈥橞补谤谤测 finally contacted the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to say that there was a 鈥渞eal emergency鈥� at the sanctuary. But he and Good then released two of the dolphins, Luther and Buck, into open water some kilometres away. 鈥淚鈥檝e been preparing them for one and a half years, and they were ready, 鈥� said afterwards, taking responsibility for his part in the release.
But they weren鈥檛. , Luther appeared near a Key West marina. He had lacerations, probably from a propeller, and was begging for food. Buck was later found more than 60 kilometres away, severely sleep-deprived and having also sustained deep tissue injuries.
The dolphins recovered and lived the rest of their lives in the care of the navy. Good and 翱鈥橞补谤谤测 were prosecuted for their illegal release and fined $59,000. 翱鈥橞补谤谤测 now runs dolphins.
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