Releasing Cetaceans (Whales & Dolphins) into the wild is not a new thing

Releasing Cetaceans (Whales & Dolphins) into the wild is not a new thing. There are numerous records of captive cetaceans being released into the wild. According to the American National Marine Fisheries Service, since 1964 more than 70 dolphins in the U.S have been returned to the wild for a variety of reasons after periods in captivity ranging from days to 10 years. 

http://on.fb.me/1ndydcT

Joe and Rosie were about 18 months old when they were captured (June 17, 1980) off Gulfport, Mississippi, for an experiment to find a language that humans and dolphins could share. The language experiment, conducted by neuroscientist Dr. John Lilly MD (1), at Marine World in Redwood City, California, ended in 1985 without the success Lilly had sought. But he and his colleagues kept their promise and gave the dolphins to ORCA, part of the nonprofit Tides Foundation in San Francisco, to be prepared for freedom. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which has had jurisdiction over dolphins since the Marine Mammal Protection Act took effect in 1972, issued dozens of permits each year to capture dolphins. The permit issued in February 1987 to release Joe and Rosie  was the first ever issued to train a captive dolphin for release to the wild. Joe and Rosie were taken to the Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key, near Marathon in the middle Florida Keys, where Ric O'Barry* and the rest of the ORCA team coached them in self-reliance in a fenced-off pen in the warm ocean waters. Their final release, late in 1987, was televised in a National Geographic/TBS special program, early the next year. Joe and Rosie have since been spotted swimming with a baby dolphin. One can only speculate what information they have been sharing with their child and with other dolphins of the Atlantic after their eight year education among humans.

Sources: 

• Objects of Language Study Will Be Trained for Release to the Wild : Captive Dolphins Will Have a Choice--Take Refuge or Go to Sea: latimes.com 

• Project JANUS: http://67.55.50.201/lilly/janus06x.html

Relative links:

- Cetacean Releases
- Compilation of articles on cetacean releases: http://rosmarus.com/Releases/Rel_1.htm

- Can all captive dolphins be released? (http://on.fb.me/XM96fH)

- Free Morgan 


More lihks: 
- Releasing Captive Dolphins -- PROTOCOL FOR THE REHABILITATION AND RELEASE OF CAPTIVE ATLANTIC BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS (Tursiops truncatus): dolphinproject.org, savejapandolphins.org, Filikaki (Fb)
- Liberando los Delfines Cautivos (Fb -- Fb photo)
- Tom and Misha: ΕΙΣΑΙ (ΓΙΑ ΠΑΝΤΑ) ΥΠΕΥΘΥΝΟΣ ΓΙΑ Ο,ΤΙ ΑΛΛΟΤΡΙΩΣΕΙΣ -- http://on.fb.me/Kn2fDT
- Can captive whales or dolphins be returned to the wild? (cathy.williamson's blog) -- Απόδοση στα Ελληνικά: Μπορούν τα δελφίνια και τα άλλα κητώδη να απελευθερωθούν από την αιχμαλωσία; --> at http://on.fb.me/1iDFI9A

- Jedol (i)
- Jedol, Sampal, and Chunsam: Once-Captive Dolphins Can Thrive In The Wild. We have Proof!
- Sometimes they can go free (blog by Courtney Vail, Program and Campaigns Manager at uk.whales.org) 
- From the Dolphin's Point of View
- COUNTRY BY COUNTRY, WATERPAKS WILL BE FORCED TO COME TO AN END.

Photo at Ric O'Barry's Dolphin Project Fb page, Dolphin Project twitter.com, -- shared at Stop Attica Zoological Park Dolphinarium (Athens - Greece) Fb page

Liberando los Delfines Cautivos

*Ric O’Barry has worked on both sides of the captive dolphin issue, making him an invaluable asset in the efforts to end exploitation. He worked for 10 years within the dolphin captivity industry, and has spent the past 44 working against it. In the 1960s, he was employed by the Miami Seaquarium, where he captured and trained dolphins, including the five dolphins who played the role of Flipper in the popular American TV-series of the same name. He also trained Hugo, the first orca kept in captivity east of the Mississippi. When Kathy, the dolphin who played Flipper most of the time, died in his arms, O’Barry realized that capturing dolphins and training them to perform silly tricks is simply wrong. From that moment on, O’Barry knew what he must do with his life. On the first Earth Day, 1970, he launched a searing campaign against the multi-billion dollar dolphin captivity industry and has been going at it ever since. Over the past 44 years, Ric O’Barry has rescued and rehabilitated dolphins in many countries around the world, including Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua (youtube video), Brazil, the Bahamas Islands and the United States. In January 2006, he became Marine Mammal Specialist for Earth Island Institute, where he is also the Director of Earth Island Institute’s Dolphin Project and Save Japan Dolphins Campaign. 

Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project is a campaign under the International Marine Mammal Project at the non-profit Earth Island Institute . The Dolphin Project aims to stop dolphin slaughter and exploitation around the world. This work has been chronicled in films such as A Fall From Freedom (Χάνοντας τη Θάλασσα της Ελευθερίας), the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove (Ο Όρμος) and in the Animal Planet mini-series Βlood Dolphin$ . Campaigns for dolphin protection are currently underway in a variety of locations around the globe, including the Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Egypt, and Singapore. The Dolphin Project is a proud part of the Earth Island Institute, a non-profit, tax deductible organization founded in 1982. The Earth Island Institute has a long and active history in dolphin-related causes. Earth Island Institute is an umbrella organization with has more than 60 projects working for the conservation, preservation, and restoration of the Earth.  

See also:  

• EMPTY THE TANKS WORLDWIDE 
• PROTOCOL FOR THE REHABILITATION AND RELEASE OF CAPTIVE ATLANTIC BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS (Tursiops truncatus) (Ric O'Barry's Dolphin Project Fb)