TOKYO — Three bottlenose dolphins were released into the open sea in Indonesia on Saturday after years of being locked up for the entertainment of tourists who touched and swam with them.
As the red and white flags of Indonesia flew, the 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 small pool at a resort hotel, to which they were sold after spending years performing in a traveling circus.
They regained their health and strength in Bali’s sanctuary, a floating pen in a bay that provided a softer, 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 in freedom.
“It was an incredibly emotional experience to see them go,” O’Barry said.
The center was initiated in 2019 by the Bali Forestry Department and Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry. “Umah lumba” means “dolphin” in Indonesian.
For some time after the gates opened, the dolphins stared at the opening, unsure of their next move. But in about an hour they were on their way, sometimes jumping over agitated waves.
The Associated Press watched their release via live stream online. O’Barry documented the release with drones and underwater footage for film.
The Indonesian government supported the rescue of the dolphins, working with the Dolphin Project, founded by Lincoln’s father Rick O’Barry, who was also at the release.
Rick O’Barry was a dolphin trainer on the 1960s TV show Flipper, but later came to see what the toll was on the animals. Since then, he has dedicated his life to returning dolphins to the wild.
Workers at the center applauded as the dolphins surfaced. Wahyu Lestari, the center’s rehabilitation coordinator, said she was a little sad to see them go.
“I’m happy they’re free and going back to their family,” she said. “They must be in the wild because they were born in the wild.”
The released dolphins will be monitored at sea with GPS tracking for a year. They may return for shrine visits, although it is unclear what they will do. They can join another group, stay together, or go their separate ways.
Dolphins in captivity are driven from town to town, kept in chlorinated water, isolated or forced to interact with tourists, often resulting in injury.
Johnny, the oldest dolphin, had teeth that were worn down to the gum line when he was rescued in 2019. Earlier this year, dentists fitted him with dolphin-style dental crowns so he can now grip live fish.
Johnny was the first of the three dolphins to swim out to sea.
Rick and Lincoln O’Barry have spent half a century working to save dolphins from captivity in places from Brazil to South Korea, and Saturday’s US edition was their first in Indonesia.
The Indonesian government’s decision to save the dolphins followed a decade-long public education campaign that included billboards, artwork, school programs and a campaign urging people not to buy tickets to dolphin shows.
A government minister was present to raise the gate of the shrine on Saturday.
Lincoln O’Barry said the Indonesian sanctuary would continue to be used for other captive dolphins. Similar sanctuaries are being developed in North America and Europe as more dolphin shows approach. With virtual reality and other technologies, appreciating nature doesn’t have to involve a zoo or a dolphin show, he said.
However, dolphin shows are still popular in China, the Middle East and Japan.
In Japan, the father and son drew attention to the dolphin hunt in the city of Taiji, documented in the 2010 Oscar-winning film The Bay. Each year, fishermen scare and trap dolphins in a bay, catch some to sell to dolphin shows, and others kill for food.
Whale and dolphin meat is considered a delicacy in Japanese culinary tradition. But Taiji has drawn protests from environmentalists for years, including some Japanese.
The three dolphins released in Indonesia were soon miles (kilometers) out into the waters. But before they left, they toured the shrine.
“They turned around and came back to us one more time, almost to say thank you and goodbye. And then they headed straight for the open ocean and disappeared,” Lincoln O’Barry said.
“We don’t know where they will go next. But we wish them a good long life.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama