NICARAGUA Gerardo Huertas could hardly believe his eyes as he watched Bluefield and Nica swim off into the wide-open sea. "This is the second time we've sown up in an emergency and returned two dolphins from hell to freedom in the past year, he thought to himself. Though a storm raged around them, the two rescued dolphins leapt playfully among the waves before eventually swimming off to find their family pod, which waited nearby. A boatload of WSPA staff and Nicaraguan soldiers cheered them on.

Captured in the wild only three months earlier, their future had once looked considerably bleaker. "When we found them, they were very sick, covered with sores and reeking with illness after living for months in freshwater," reports Gerardo Huertas, Director for Latin America.

Their captor had little experience with dolphins, his original intent had been to train them for a swim-with-the-dolphins programme. The completely inadequate holding pen, poor diet and lack of water filtration nearly killed the dolphins before they could ever be trained.

When WSPA's team was called in to assess the dolphins they immediately saw that they were losing weight at an alarming rate and had bleeding and painful gums that impaired their ability to eat. As soon as WSPA reported their findings to Nicaragua's Ministry of the Environment, arrangements were made to confiscate the dolphins. During the first week of August, custody of the dolphins was officially turned over to WSPA.

In order to stabilize their health, the team flushed the filthy water from their pool and replaced it with clean water and 3,000 pounds of salt in order to mimic the salinity of seawater. An improved diet of fresh fish was supplemented with vitamins and electrolytes and a course of antibiotics. After several tense days, rescuers felt that Bluefield and Nica had stabilized enough to be moved into a sea pen to continue their rehabilitation.
With help from the Nicaraguan army, both dolphins were rounded up in less than an hour and loaded onto a boat for the brief ride to a nearby naval base.
From there, a massive military helicopter waited to chauffeur the dolphins to the rehab site on the coast of Nicaragua's Corn Island.

Once at the sea pen, WSPA's Marine Mammal Specialist Ric O'Barry began their rehabilitation. "Because they had been in captivity a relatively short time, they still remembered how to hunt fish and use their sonar," says Ric. "Also, they were captured as adults, so they had years of experience in living in the wild. Mainly, we just needed to give them the proper habitat, and they healed beautifully."

A few short weeks later, the dolphins were deemed to be in good health and arrangements were made to take them out to the area where they had originally been captured. They were loaded aboard a Nicaraguan coast guard vessel by WSPA staff with assistance from a dozen Nicaraguan soldiers. Minister of the Environment Jorge Salazar and his staff were also on hand.
With stormy skies overhead, the team released Bluefield and Nica into their home waters, where they quickly swam off to find their family.

This rescue follows hot-on-the heals of the successful release another pair of dolphins last year, named Ariel and Turbo. They had been abandoned by a travelling show high up in the mountains of Guatemala before WSPA gained custody of them and returned them to the sea.

In Latin America, many wild dolphins are still being captured for use in circus shows and swim-with-dolphin programmes. WSPA is urging governments throughout the regions to outlaw their capture.

WSPA is grateful to Nicaragua's Minister of Environment for his quick action on behalf of Bluefield and Nica. Please send your faxes and emails today, thanking him for supporting WSPA's rescue operation and asking him to prevent cases like this in the future by promoting legislation to prohibit the capture of dolphins.

Ing. Jorge Salazar
Minister of Environment
Email: mins_mar@sdnnic.org.ni
Fax: 011-505-263-1274
Phone: 011-505-263-1273 or 263-134