Dolphins to be freed from traveling shows

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2011:
JAKARTA–“We have identified 73 ‘blood dolphins’ who were
captured illegally from the Indonesian national parks,” Dolphin
Project founder Ric O’Barry e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on March 26,
2011. Working with the Indonesian Foresty Ministry, O’Barry said,
“We will confiscate them in groups of three to five.”
The Jakarta Animal Aid Network and the Dolphin Project,
working in recent years under the auspices of Earth Island Institute,
expect to release back to the wild 70 dolphins from Karimun Jawa
National Park in Central Java and three more from Ujung Kulon
National Park in Banten.

JAAN and the Dolphin Project have completed a sea pen the size
of a baseball infield in Karimun Jawa National Park where the
dolphins will be reacclimated to the ocean.
The illegally captured dolphins were discovered, reported
Ismira Lutfia of the Jakarta Globe, after JAAN was told about a
five-troupe traveling circus featuring dolphins.
“Other dolphins were found in five institutions operating
under the guise of doing conservation, education, and therapy,
which had allegedly obtained the animals illegally from poachers on
the northern coast of Java,” wrote Lutfia.
Said O’Barry, “This is the last traveling dolphin show in the
world and Indonesia is the only country to have such a show. Our
goal from the beginning was to stop all dolphin captures in
Indonesia,” O’Barry noted. “We have already accomplished that goal.
Everything else is a bonus.”
O’Barry led the campaign to close the last traveling dolphin
shows in the U.S. between 30 and 40 years ago. He later led efforts
to close the last traveling dolphin shows in Central and South
America.