In October 2022, bottlenose dolphin Bibong was released back into the wild after spending 17 years of his life confined and being used for shows in South Korea. Believed to be around 23 years old, he was one of eight dolphins that had been kept in various aquariums, the other seven were released in 2013, 2015 and 2017 but Bibong, illegally caught in waters off the island in 2005, had to wait longer for his release. He was used in shows at Pacific Resom in the Jeju city of Seogwipo and although fitted with a tracking device upon release for regular monitoring (at least six months) his whereabouts have not been known for some time, hopefully, due to possible loss of signal.
A study is to be conducted to further investigate how Bibong and the previously released dolphins are adapting to ocean life while assessing the impacts of the release, there didn’t seem to be a clear recovery plan in case of failure when releasing the animals back into the wild. Not all released captive dolphins will adapt, even those which had been wild-caught, however, the positive news is that three females released produced calves. The results of the study will be published in the near future.
Sadly there are still many other cetaceans held in confinement at commercial facilities in South Korea including wild-caught dolphins from Taiji, Japan and beluga whales from Russian waters.
