A dolphin named Sampal broke free from a Korean Rehab
facility to unite with its family.
Sampal , a creature that spent the first decade of her life
in the waters around Jeju Island, off the coast of South Korea had been abused and exploited most part of her life.
However, her story also has a happy development. It calls on proper care and
considerations whendealing with these beings of the sea.
When Sampal was about
ten years old, she was accidentally captured in one of the numerous fishing
nets in the waters around the island. Rather than being released, she was
illegally sold to the Pacific Land Aquarium, where she spent roughly three
years confined to a tiny subterranean pool. Kept hungry, she was forced to
perform daily by doing tricks that would be rewarded with food, as is routine
practice at captive dolphin facilities.
About a year ago, thanks to the efforts of individuals such
as Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Sampal and her two companions at Pacific Land
were ordered by the Korean High Court to be returned to their home waters. The
dolphins were transferred to a temporary sea pen this May for rehabilitation
and an eventual release, which was officially scheduled for sometime later this
summer.
About a month into the rehabilitation,
the netting of the sea pen tore open, resulting in a gap large enough for a
dolphin to swim through. Sampal took advantage of the situation and left the
pen. She hung around after her escape, but as a group of people gathered at the
pen to ascertain how to get her back inside, she swam for the open ocean and
did not return.
While there was great concern for her wellbeing, with some
fearing that she was not ready to be returned to the ocean, Sampai was sighted on June 27 at 100 kilometers away from the sea pen, swimming with a pod of about 50
dolphins—the very ones from whom she was taken all those years ago.
All too often, dolphins are not given this opportunity. Dolphins represent
millions of dollars in annual revenues for any facility, like Pacific Land,
that can get their hands on these oceanic beings and manage to keep them alive
in captivity. The captivity industry claims that rehabilitation and release
projects, such as Sampal’s, are doomed to failure and are dangerous for the
dolphins themselves. Some surmise that these concerns are not for the dolphins,
however, but for the negative financial impact on companies that profit from
exploiting innocent lives.
While Sampal’s release is certainly not the first of its
kind (Turkey released two dolphins just last year, and O’Barry had been
involved in more than half a dozen successful rehab and release projects for
dolphins before this), it is another good example of why it makes sense to
return dolphins to their rightful homes.
Sampal’s story suggests that dolphins may be more like us
than not. While we cannot scientifically prove that Sampal longed for her
family and they for her, the burden of proof should rest upon those who attempt
to explain these events as being a collection of coincidences driven by
instinct. With mounting scientific and anecdotal evidence, it is no longer
possible to assume that dolphins are not cognitively complex, self-aware
beings. And it remains likewise impossible to justify keeping these beings
confined for our amusement.
Sampal’s story is not over, but she has been reunited with
her family due to the efforts of people who understand and respect dolphins. We
must hope that Sampal avoids further interactions with humans, lest she fall prey
to greed once more. But each of us can help her and others like her if we begin
to see dolphins in a new light—one that demands their fair treatment and allows
them the basic rights to simply exist, unharmed, in the oceans with their kin.
Pix: Sampal in
a sea pen at the Korean rehab center from which she eventually escaped.
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