By Environmental News Network Dolphin conservationist Richard
O'Barry, the former trainer of television's famous dolphin
Flipper, has just completed a real-life dolphin rescue, saving
two abused dolphins in Guatemala. Working as a rescuer with the
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), O'Barry
supervised the move of bottlenose dolphins Ariel and Turbo to
Guatemala's Manavique Point last week. He and a rehabilitation
team now aim to restore the abused dolphins to the wild ocean, a
process expected to take about two months. The two dolphins were
kept in a filthy makeshift pool on a hillside near Antigua City,
Guatemala, as part of a traveling dolphin spectacle known as
Mundo Marino, based in Venezuela. They were abandoned by their
trainers earlier this month after questions about possible
permit violations at the facility arose. The WSPA says that the
trainers left with most of the water filtration equipment,
making rescue difficult and the death of the starving dolphins
almost inevitable. The WSPA