Dolphin Leaps Out of Tank During Marine Park Show

On July 4, while Americans celebrated Independence Day, a dolphin at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan made her own bid for freedom. Kuru, a type of dolphin known as a false killer whale, was caught on video escaping the tank during a show. In perhaps the most heart-wrenching part of the scene, the rest of her pod gathers, distressed, to look on while the trainers hose Kuru down and wrap her in mats to lift her back into the tank with a crane.

Apparently, this kind of thing happens from time to time at Churaumi, which is why they have mats close-at-hand around the pool. Hideshi Teruya, the manager of the park's dolphin section, said, "It was playing around and jumped out by accident from the momentum." It sure didn't look like a miscalculated leap or accidental tumble — you can see her nosing over the edge several times before she makes the jump onto the pavement.

Ric O'Barry, star of the The Cove, the Oscar-winning documentary about the annual slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese village of Taiji, had a very different take on the dolphin's behavior than Teruya. "The habitat of that false killer whale is so unnatural it leaped out in desperation. It wanted to end it. Why does a person jump out of a building?"

Was it a suicide attempt? It's possible — there are stories of suicide in the animal world. O'Barry himself has seen depressed dolphin behavior before. In his pre-activist days, he was a trainer on the popular television show, Flipper. He says that one of the dolphins he worked with on the show committed suicide. "She came into my arms and looked me right in the eye, took a breath and didn't take another one. I let her go and she sank straight down on her belly to the bottom of the tank."

This latest jump is just further proof that keeping marine mammals in captivity is cruel. They need more out of life than swimming in circles and doing a few flips a day to amuse a human audience. O'Barry says, "They are free-ranging creatures with a very large brain. They're self-aware and putting them in a small tank in a stadium setting is abusive."

Teruya says Kuru only suffered minor scratches and bruises on her head and fin, but she has a healthy appetite and is doing fine. Well, except for continuing to living her life in a glorified bathtub.

Photo credit: YouTube