Domesticated dolphins lost at sea
Young trio may not have the skills to survive

Mary Vallis
National Post

September 12, 2005

Eight dolphins from a Mississippi tourist attraction are swimming free along the Gulf Coast thanks to Hurricane Katrina.

A 12-metre tidal wave crushed three tanks at the beachside Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Miss., and swept the bottlenose dolphins out to sea.

The dolphins have been spotted playing in the surf, and officials with the aquarium are making daily boat trips with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to look for them. The trainers are using whistles to attract the mammals, most of which have been in captivity for years.

Three of the dolphins -- Tony, Noah and Eli -- were born in captivity and may not have the hunting skills to survive in the wild, said Elizabeth Sack, the aquarium's marine mammal trainer.

"Fortunately for us, some of the adult females were wild-caught. Hopefully, they're remembering how to catch fish and they're protecting the littler ones," Ms. Sack said in an interview.

She is concerned, though, about the bacteria and pollutants the dolphins may encounter: The hurricane contaminated the Gulf of Mexico with unusually high levels of toxic chemicals, petroleum and garbage.

The aquarium's staff managed to save the lives of six other dolphins by moving them to hotel swimming pools hours before the hurricane struck. Three rode out the storm at a Holiday Inn, while another trio took refuge at a Best Western. Ms. Sack said the animals barely noticed the hurricane and played with their toys throughout the ordeal.

The storm destroyed the Oceanarium. The dolphins at the hotels were transported by truck last week to the Gulfarium in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., where Ms. Sack is watching over them.

The Oceanarium is also searching for missing sea lions. Eight sea lions were loaded into crates and survived the storm in a truck parked in their trainer's driveway, but 19 more were swept out of the marine park with the tidal wave.

Four died, and all but two of the remaining sea lions have been located. The rest were strewn throughout the neighbourhood surrounding the marine park -- in front yards, warehouses, casino hotels, parking lots. One was wedged under a house, Ms. Sack said.

"People were very nice about it," she said. "They would call us right away and they were doing everything they could, from keeping water on the sea lions to offering them fish."

Like the dolphins, the surviving sea lions were shipped to aquariums in Florida that had extra room.

Dr. Moby Solangi, the president of Marine Life Oceanarium, is confident the missing dolphins will be found.

"These animals are certainly domesticated animals, and we'd like to get them back. But they have their instincts," he said yesterday before boarding a boat to resume the search. He suspects the missing dolphins are still travelling as a pod.

Dr. Solangi said the story of a dolphin that survived Hurricane Camille in 1969 gives him hope. Six months after the storm, a shrimp fisherman in the Gulf noticed that one particular dolphin would perform different jumps if he threw fish at it. It turned out to be a dolphin missing from an aquarium ravaged by the storm.

© National Post 2005