Dolphin meets new friends in wild after running away

 

A herd of more than 50 dolphins were spotted from a boat operated by the whale research center under the National Fisheries Research & Development Institute at waters about 100 meters off the shore at the village of Hamo-ri, township of Daejeong-eup, Seoguipo City, Jeju Island at 3 p.m. on Friday. Two people, including research officer Kim Hyeon-woo, rushed to videotape and photograph the dolphins, because they believed there was a high chance that Dolphin “D-38” nicknamed “Sampari,” which escaped from wild adaptation training at Seongsanpo Port in Seoguipo City last Saturday, joined the group.

 

Kim and colleague analyzed the shape of dorsal fins, blood stems and injuries of the dolphins in the photos to discover “Sampari.” Just like human fingerprints, the shape of dolphins’ dorsal fins are all different each other. Kim said, “We think that Sampari was able to seamlessly join the herd of dolphins because he only performed dolphin shows for a shot time since it was captured in 2010.”

 

Sampari and its companion Chunsami had been caught in a fixed shore net in waters off Gonae-ri, Aewol-eup, Jeju City, and were trained to conduct shows, before being freed in April this year due to court ruling. Sampari escaped through a hole from a fixated net recently while taking training for re-adaptation to the nature with Chunsami and Jedori, which was transferred from Seoul Zoo. Jedori and Chunsami will be released next month, with global positioning system installed on them.