Dolphin Flees From Captivity and Finds Old Friends
- 11 years ago
Sampal, a dolphin who was illegally captured, sold, and put into captivity, has escaped and found her way home.
Sampal, a dolphin who was illegally captured, sold, and put into captivity, has escaped and found her way home.
In 2009 she was caught in the nets of fishermen off the coast of South Korea, and instead of being rereleased as required by law, was sold to an area aquarium.
The dolphin was kept in a small pool, poorly fed, and forced to perform tricks for paying crowds.
Following a campaign to free her and two companions, the trio was finally moved to a temporary holding facility in the sea to be retrained for life in the wild and released.
The date for their return to the sea was scheduled for a point later in the summer, but Sampal apparently couldn’t wait.
She fled through a tear in the netting and evaded the attempts to put her back into the interim enclosure.
After nearly a week filled with worries that she wouldn’t be able to make it out there alone, she was located by the Cetacean Research Institute.
Turns out, not only was Sampal fine, she had made it over 60 miles from the pen and was swimming with a group of dolphins thought to be from her previous pod.
Sampal, a dolphin who was illegally captured, sold, and put into captivity, has escaped and found her way home.
In 2009 she was caught in the nets of fishermen off the coast of South Korea, and instead of being rereleased as required by law, was sold to an area aquarium.
The dolphin was kept in a small pool, poorly fed, and forced to perform tricks for paying crowds.
Following a campaign to free her and two companions, the trio was finally moved to a temporary holding facility in the sea to be retrained for life in the wild and released.
The date for their return to the sea was scheduled for a point later in the summer, but Sampal apparently couldn’t wait.
She fled through a tear in the netting and evaded the attempts to put her back into the interim enclosure.
After nearly a week filled with worries that she wouldn’t be able to make it out there alone, she was located by the Cetacean Research Institute.
Turns out, not only was Sampal fine, she had made it over 60 miles from the pen and was swimming with a group of dolphins thought to be from her previous pod.