Dolphins Going Back to the Wild in Bali Is One of the Coolest Things You’ll See All Day

More than 3,000 dolphins were held captive as of 2019, according to a World Animal Protection report, but the Dolphin Project aims to change that.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 This is Rambo, a bottlenose dolphin

00:06 that used to be confined to a pool

00:08 for entertaining visitors at a hotel in Bali.

00:11 But now he's swimming freely at a rehabilitation center

00:14 in one of the island's bays.

00:16 The project was initiated by Bali's government

00:18 and animal rights groups,

00:19 who rescued four dolphins being held at the hotel.

00:22 Organizers say it's the world's first

00:24 permanent dolphin sanctuary,

00:25 which is run by the Dolphin Project.

00:27 Founder Rick O'Berry says it's a model

00:29 that can be duplicated.

00:31 There needs to be many small sanctuaries

00:33 and places where dolphin areas have closed down

00:36 and a compatible group of dolphins can go there

00:40 to be evaluated or released back into the wild.

00:44 Returning dolphins into the wild

00:45 depends on their health and ability to hunt,

00:47 but that's the goal.

00:49 We aim to relocate them to their area

00:52 that they know, where they grew up,

00:54 where, yeah, it's good if we could release them

00:56 in their original habitat.

00:58 In 2019, a World Animal Protection report

01:00 said more than 3,000 dolphins were in captivity

01:03 at 336 entertainment venues globally,

01:06 which is part of an industry making $5.5 billion a year.

01:10 (upbeat music)