Already this season I have written a couple of blogs about fishing gear, tackle, nets, monofilament line and the dangers these items present to wildlife.
This story has a sad beginning due to fish netting, but a VERY happy ending.
Sampal, one of 50 dolphins in a pod residing in the ocean waters near Jeju Island, off the coast of South Korea, was caught in a fisherman’s net by accident. Instead of returning her to the sea, where she had lived for 10 years, the fisherman opted to sell her to a local aquarium. There, she and two other dolphins were made to perform for food. Her entire world was turned upside down and although she learned the appropriate commands, her world shrunk from the vastness of the open sea to a small tank that reportedly afforded the dolphins little room to swim.
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As the story goes, animal activists took up her cause and Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon ordered that all three dolphins be released. This presented another issue…how does one release a dolphin after she has been in captivity for four years?
Everything Sampal and her tank mates had “learned” during the four years in captivity needed to be "erased” if possible, so the dolphins could be returned to their wild state. This is extremely difficult to do and requires caring individuals who dedicate themselves to nurturing the animals, body and spirit, renewing the natural instincts that lay suppressed within the souls of those animals, for so long.
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Although she was scheduled for release in late summer, on June 22nd, Sampal seized an opportunity and escaped through a tear in the netting of her sea pen. This is a feat in itself, as dolphins are not fond of swimming through narrow spaces. Sampal remained in the general vicinity of her sea pen for a while, on the open water side…probably trying to acclimate to her newly regained freedom, but she was gone before she could be restrained for further deprogramming.
Three days later, Sampal was spotted 60 miles away from her sea pen…and amazingly, she was swimming happily with her pod from four years ago!
Sampal, surprised virtually everyone. She never forgot her pod and family. Nor did she lose her spirit, her instinct for survival or her love of the wide open ocean!
It is important to know that our wild neighbors do have feelings…perhaps not exactly in the way we humans do, but they do “feel” pain, hurt, warmth – and many seek companionship (usually of their own species). Rather poignant…we share many qualities with our wild neighbors and yet many of us are very quick to dismiss that fact when money is involved.
For those nonbelievers…who shrug it off as mere coincidence, think again. Although we do not know what was going on the mind of Sampal, she made a conscious decision to leave the safety of the pen through a narrow opening. She returned to her home range, which indicates that she remembered her origins or recognized the terrain somehow. She found her original pod and they accepted her, which would lead one to believe that her pod mates remembered her, too.
I believe we can learn quite a bit from Sampal’s story. My hope for her is that she lives many happy years in the big ocean, without interacting with humans or getting caught in another fisherman’s net.
To read previous blogs on the dangers of fishing debris:
Hooked On Fishing? Don’t Make Innocent Wildlife The Big Catch!
Content Credits go to MSN, Michael Mountain and Laura Bridgeman, a Program Associate with the Earth Island Institute's Dolphin Project and writer for takepart.com.
