Bella the beluga with Hot Pink Dolphins campaigners. (Beth Clifton collage)
Phase-out of marine mammal exhibition appears to be underway
SEOUL, South Korea––“Marine mammals are now prohibited from being used for exhibition purposes as well as programs that involve riding or feeding marine mammals,” effective immediately, the South Korean Ministry of Oceans & Fisheries announced on December 14, 2023.
“Starting today,” the announcement continued, “aquariums in South Korea holding captive dolphins and whales are banned from purchasing new cetaceans for display.”
The new South Korean policy governing marine mammal captivity will be enforced through a permitting system introduced by the Ministry of Environment earlier in the week.
Bella. (Hot Pink Dolphins photo)
“Must provide habitats that match characteristics of natural environments”
“To be licensed as an aquarium, the Ministry of Environment detailed, “the facilities must provide habitats that match characteristics of the animals’ natural environments,” and must do so within five years.
Since there has been no successful dolphin or whale breeding in captivity in South Korea, the December 14, 2023 announcement amounts to a plan to phase out dolphin and whale exhibition, effective with the ends of the lives of the 16 bottlenose dolphins and five beluga whales kept among four captive exhibition facilities in South Korea.
All 16 of the bottlenose dolphins were captured at the infamous cove in Taiji, Japan, exposed in the 2010 Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, featuring Ric O’Barry, the former dolphin trainer who turned marine mammal freedom advocate on Earth Day 1970.
All five beluga whales were wild-caught from Russian waters.
Bella. (Hot Pink Dolphins photo)
Bella, poster beluga for Hot Pink Dolphins
One of those belugas, Bella, “was believed to be around two years old when she was captured in 2013 and sold to the Lotte World Aquarium – the largest in Seoul, run by one of South Korea’s richest and largest conglomerates,” reported Heather Chen and Yoonjung Seo for CNN on December 24, 2023.
“With two male belugas, Belli and Bellu, along with other polar animals like penguins and seals, she formed part of a popular arctic attraction,” Chen and Soo continued.
But Bellu died at age five in 2016. Belli died in 2019, at age 12.
Bella. (Hot Pink Dolphins photo)
Pledge to release Bella has not been honored
The Lotte World Aquarium responded to “a firestorm of criticism from South Korean animal rights activists,” Chen and Soo recalled, by pledging then to release Bella.
More than four years later, Hot Pink Dolphins protest group cofounder Jo Yak-gol objected to Chen and Soo of CNN, “The exhibit is still open and no release date has been made public.”
A Lotte World Aquarium spokesperson has repeatedly told CNN that release plans were progressing, while claiming that, “At this point, there is no other place for her to stay.”
Bella. (Hot Pink Dolphins photo)
Where a beluga could go
Belugas inhabit the Arctic Ocean coastal waters of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, with southern populations in the Cook Inlet of Alaska and the Saguenay River extending north from the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, but Bella may be too habituated to human feeding to survive a return to the wild.
The dwindling and genetically isolated Cook Inlet and Saguenay River beluga populations could benefit from an infusion of new genes. Integrating Bella into either of those populations, however, would be both very expensive and high risk.
However, the Sea Life Trust, based in Poole, Britain, but with a sea pen in Klettsvik Bay, Iceland, in 2020 accepted two female belugas named Little Grey and Little White from the Changfeng Ocean World aquarium in China, nine years after their capture in Russia.
Bella. (Hot Pink Dolphins photo)
Klettsvik Bay
The Sea Life Trust sea pen at Klettsvik Bay in Iceland would appear to be the Lotte World Aquarium choice of destinations for Bella.
However, in late November 2023, Chen and Soo narrated, a Lotte World Aquarium spokesperson told CNN that, “We recently received a response from the Icelandic operator that they had no choice but to postpone the process due to environmental issues within their facility.
“Accordingly,” said the Lotte World Aquarium statement, “we are discussing various alternatives, including (other) overseas sanctuaries and domestic ones, with experts from the discharge committee.”
Beluga whales in aquarium. (Beth Clifton collage)
Ulcers
Meanwhile Little Grey developed stomach ulcers at Klettsvik Bay, which in mid-2023 caused both belugas to be taken back into confinement for special care.
“Our long-term goal for Little Grey and Little White to live in the open-water sea sanctuary throughout the year has not changed,” the Sea Life Trust announced on September 29, 2023, “and, with the support of their dedicated welfare team and third-party experts, we will continue to help them to be ready for moving back to the bay” in 2024.
There appears to be no more recent update.
Hvaldimir. (GoFundMe photo)
Hvaldimir
A second sanctuary project, the Norwegian Whale Reserve, founded specifically in hopes of eventually accommodating a male beluga named Hvaldimir, has no belugas as yet, but has a 500-acre arctic fjord in Finnmark, the northernmost county in Norway.
Hvaldimir first came to global notice in April 2019, Guardian reporter Hannah Ellis-Petersen summarized, when “Fishermen in waters near the small Norwegian fishing village of Inga reported that a white beluga whale wearing a strange harness had begun to harass their fishing boats.”
Picked up fellow Guardian reporter Jules Howard, “Upon the body of this whale there was a strap. Upon the fabric of this strap was written a long chain of human hieroglyphs – ‘Equipment of St Petersburg,’ the writing said. And then – almost as if it were all a dream – the whale disappeared.”
Hvaldimir the beluga with Helene O’Barry.
“Begging for attention”
Hvaldimir has reappeared many times since then. Ric and Helene O’Barry visited him on June 20, 2023.
“He is not begging for food. He is begging for attention. Just wanting to connect with someone. Just wanting to be accepted, and loved,” Ric O’Barry reported.
(See Iceland whaling halt upstages Ric O’Barry appeal for Russian beluga.)
“The Norwegan Whale Reserve has been actively engaging with Bella’s owners for the past two years, offering to facilitate her transfer,” board member Andre Borell told CNN.
“We are poised to provide a haven for her and potentially another captive beluga whale at the Aqua Planet Yeosu park in South Korea named Ruby,” Borell said.
“Although there has been no commitment from Bella or Ruby’s owners,” Borell added, “we remain hopeful and are committed to working with South Korean authorities as soon as possible to proceed with the next steps.”
Taiji dolphin captures.
(Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project photo)
Marine mammal park demand down?
The five belugas remaining in captivity in South Korea are among about 300 in captivity worldwide, mostly in China and Japan.
Whether demand for belugas is up or down is difficult to gauge, but Cynthia Fernandez, a longtime volunteer for Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project, recently reported indications that marine mammal park demand for dolphins may be down.
“After a three-year absence, I returned to Taiji in November,” Fernandez posted to the Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project web site. “Due to the pandemic, Dolphin Project Cove Monitors were unable to be on the ground in Taiji for the past two seasons.
“The financial driving force behind these hunts are the profits made from the training and selling of dolphins to marine parks around the world,” Fernandez reminded, but observed that, “The hunters are off to a very slow start to the 2023-24 season.
Dolphins at the Taiji cove.
“Sea pens are full of dolphins”
“The sea pens in Moriura bay are full of dolphins, mostly bottlenose. Hopefully, sales are down,” Fernandez wrote.
“The presence of Pacific white-sided and pantropical spotted dolphins may also indicate a reduction in the demand for captive dolphins. The last time each of those species were captured was during the 2020-21 season. All of the captive facilities in Taiji have Risso’s dolphins.
“Another possible indication of a decline was seen,” Fernandez added, “when last month the hunters drove in a fairly large pod of bottlenose dolphins and took three for captivity. Four dolphins taken the day before were returned to the pod, and along with the rest of the dolphins, were released. Perhaps the sea pens are all full.”
Dolphin being moved from Melka Excelsior Hotel to Dolphin Lodge Bali for rehabilitation.
(Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project photo)
Rambo swims free
Another longtime Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project volunteer, Cara Sands, reported the midsummer 2023 success of O’Barry’s most recent return of former captive performing dolphins to the wild.
“A little over 10 months since three confiscated dolphins were offered their freedom, Rambo, the last remaining dolphin residing near the release site, chose to depart,” Sands wrote.
“On September 3, 2022, the gate was opened at the Umah Lumba Rehabilitation, Release and Retirement Center [in Bali, Indonesia], offering freedom to Rocky, Rambo and Johnny, three confiscated dolphins who had been in our care for nearly three years.
(See Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project celebrates a triple dolphin release in Bali.)
Umah Lumba sea pen at West Bali National Park.
(Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project photo)
Umah Lumba
“The Center, located in Banyuwedang Bay, West Bali, Indonesia, is the first and only permanent dolphin rehabilitation, release and retirement facility for formerly performing dolphins,” Sands explained.
“In the weeks following the release, Johnny and Rambo spent their time exploring the immediate area. Rocky,” last tracked about 750 miles away, “along the southern part of Java,” appeared to have joined a wild dolphin pod.
Johnny, believed to have been more than 40 years old, died at the Umah Lumba Center from a respiratory infection on November 1, 2022.
Rambo joined three wild bottlenose dolphins for a time on June 17, 2023, and then left the area with five wild on July 19, 2023.
Beth & Merritt Clifton.
“Rambo always was the most careful one. He really took his time to get familiar with every aspect of being free and independent. Leaving in the way that he did, with other bottlenose dolphins, well, it just couldn’t be better,” said Jakarta Animal Aid founder Femke den Haas, who is also Indonesia campaign director for Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project.
Pointed out Ric O’Barry himself, “This particular model — the Umah Lumba Center, and the protocol we are developing––can be implemented anywhere there is government cooperation.”
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