Background:
In late 1996 Frederic Lepage, executive producer with the French film production company Tele Images Nature, contacts Ric O'Barry and asks if he is interested in collaborating with Tele Images Nature on a documentary which involves releasing a dolphin back into the wild. The title of the documentary: The Blue Beyond.
Ric's answer, of course, is yes, and the first stage of the project is locating a dolphin that can be rehabilitated and released. Ric and Tele Images Nature agree that in searching for the dolphin, the following condition must be met: Only a dolphin from a captivity facility that is not going to simply capture another one to replace it can be accepted for the documentary.
It proves very difficult to find a dolphinarium that's willing to give up one of their dolphins, but eventually a Swiss woman, Veronica Duport, who has worked in the dolphinarium of Santa Marta, Colombia, contacts us. She tells us how one of the dolphins--a female bottlenose dolphin by the name of Stephania -- has been sent to the Seaquarium, an attraction in San Andres, Colombia, and is now deteriorating in a small tank. Can we help Stephania?
We puts Veronica Duport in touch with Frederic Lepage, and after negotiating with the Seaquarium, Tele Images Nature buys Stephania for an undisclosed amount of money. The Seaquarium agrees not to replace Stephania with another dolphin, and in the beginning of 1998, Ric and I travel to Colombia to take over the care of Stephania.
The following report describes what happens from the day we see Stephania for the first time till we part with her five and a half months later.
Ó Helene O'Barry
Report on Dolphin Stephania's Progress
FEBRUARY 1998
On the 20th of February 1998, we arrive at the Seaquarium, a rundown tourist attraction on the island San Andres, Colombia, anxious to see dolphin Stephania for the very first time.
The Seaquarium is owned by a Colombian couple and is clearly deteriorating. The animals -- a dolphin, a blind sea lion, and a dozen hawksbill turtles -- are kept in small, filthy, concrete pools and are suffering from neglect: If there is no money to buy fish, they simply don't eat.
There have been few visitors at the Seaquarium lately, and the facility is closing down due to financial problems. This is why the owners have agreed to let Tele Images Nature purchase their lone female bottlenose dolphin, Stephania.
We are prepared to find a dolphin in bad condition. But upon seeing Stephania, we are shocked: Her condition is beyond bad. It's horrifying:
Stephania is kept in isolation in a small substandard tank, measuring 8 meters in diameters. The tank has no filtration system and the water -- no more than 1 meter deep -- is dark with filth and algae. Rotting leaves are floating on the surface, and the bottom of the tank is covered with rejected fish and the dolphin's own body waste. Having refused to eat for weeks, Stephania is starving. All of her ribs are visible, and she has developed the so-called 'peanut head,' a life-threatening condition caused by the dolphin loosing so much weight the body starts feeding on its own bone marrow, giving her head the shape of a peanut.
Seaquarium staff has been force-feeding Stephania macabi, a fish of very poor 
quality. The force-feeding is done by inserting a tube from the dolphin's mouth to her stomach, in this way feeding her a liquid fish diet prepared in a blender. During the tubing process, she is removed from the tank and placed on a pad on the ground, a most stressful experience for a dolphin that normally lives in a gravity-free ocean environment.
Prior to our arrival a shade has been erected, covering half the tank and providing Stephania with some protection from the hot sun. But it's too late. Dolphins have no natural protection from the sun. In nature, they don't need it, as they spend very little time on the surface of the water. Most of their time they travel, dive, forage, play, and socialize. Stephania, who is kept in isolation in a small tank where she can barely move, has been lying on the surface for days on end, causing the hot sun to do serious damage: The upper part of her body is black with sunburn, and the sensitive area around her blowhole is cracked and broken.
The only liquid dolphins consume is contained in the fish they eat, and because Stephania has been eating very little for a couple of weeks, she has become severely dehydrated, adding to her physical problems.
The Seaquarium staff is about to give up all hope of recovery, and with good reason: Stephania is literally living in a cesspool, barely hanging on to her life.
According to records available Stephania was captured near mainland Colombia -- exact location unknown -- in August 1987 for the dolphinarium of Santa Marta, Colombia. Here, with seven other dolphins of a different species, she was trained to perform circus tricks for tourists. Then, in July 1995, she was transferred to the Seaquarium at San Andres and put in a small concrete tank with two dolphins of the species Sotalia fluviatilis, also known as Tucuxi dolphins.
The male Tucuxi dolphin developed a habit of eating debris floating on the surface of the water, eventually leading to his death, and his mate died soon after. From then, Stephania's only companion was Andrea, a blind sea lion.
Dolphins are complex, intelligent, and social animals, with a highly developed emotional sense. Most spend their lives in the company of dolphins of their own kind, and it's here -- within the pod -- they find company, safety, and affection. In fact, it's by relating to dolphins of the same species that a dolphin's individuality is formed. When a dolphin is taken away from her pod, she becomes lost. She loses her identity.
That's exactly what happened to Stephania. Most likely she was swimming with her mother and other females and their offspring the day she was captured. Enjoying the ability to move freely in the immensity of the ocean world, Stephania and her family pod would easily swim up to 40 miles a day, and that's what characterizes dolphins in nature: They are always on the move.
Stephania and Andrea continued performing; the number of shows daily depending on the number of tourists visiting the aquarium. Stephania had been trained to perform all the usual captive dolphin circus tricks: Wave at the audience, hit a ball with her snout, and take her trainers for rides around the tank. Much to the spectators' amusement and delight, she was even made to walk on her tail whilst wearing sunglasses.
The billion-dollar dolphin captivity industry, which is supported in the USA by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the Department of Commerce, insists that capturing dolphins and training them to perform these dolphin shows is educational.
For Stephania, certainly it was not. Before her capture, she was a vigorous and spirited dolphin, wild and free. She belonged in a pod and knew her way around in her vast ocean world. The moment she was captured, this all changed: Captivity soon transformed this once-wild, opportunistic forager to a sickly pet performing circus tricks for rewards of dead fish -- and all in the sacred name of education.
When dolphins are captured and confined in a barren, concrete tank, their natural skills -- skills that have evolved over millions of years -- can find no expression. For 11 years Stephania didn't chase a live fish or hear the natural sounds of the sea. Nor did she see a dolphin of her own kind. Having forever lost her rightful place in her ocean world, her life seemed to have lost its meaning.
Then one day, Stephania simply refused to perform. The Seaquarium staff explains: 'She wouldn't do anything we asked her to. And she wouldn't eat. Even if she didn't have to do tricks, she still wouldn't eat.'
When Stephania's condition rapidly worsened, she was separated from Andrea, her last remaining companion, and put in the small holding tank where -- seriously weakened from starvation and dehydration -- she would lie motionless, her eyes closed and her tail resting on the bottom of the tank for balance.
Looking at the sick and lonely dolphin, we have no doubts: Stephania is in the process of dying.
The following days we keep Stephania company by the tank, hoping she senses we've 
come to help her out of this mess. In each our own way we urge her not to give up. One of Stephania's former trainers, Veronica Duport from Switzerland, spends a great deal of time in the water with the dolphin, holding and comforting her. She is in the position to do so, having bonded with Stephania at the dolphinarium in Santa Marta.
Dr. Cyril Hue, a French veterinarian with experience in stranded marine mammals and assigned to the project of rehabilitating dolphin Stephania, arrives from Paris, accompanied by his assistant, Olivier Van Canneyt. They examine Stephania, take blood tests, and weigh her. Weighing a shocking 99 kg, she is approximately 60 kg below normal minimal weight, and Dr. Cyril Hue comments: 'I have seen stranded dolphins that looked better than her.'
Olivier Van Canneyt cleans the tank several times, pumping out the body waste and rejected fish, and O'Barry shows the Seaquarium staff how to tube Stephania properly while she remains in a stretcher in her tank, thus eliminating considerable stress.
Stephania's diet is improved and, using a large hypodermic needle and syringe, we inject quantities of water into the fish, trying to make sure she gets some liquid in her body. We also inject large quantities of electrolytes. Throughout the day we offer Stephania fish, but she eats very little, accepting only small quantities at a time, and her spirits remain low.
Ric, who has seen many captive dolphins fall into this state, calls this Captive Dolphin Depression Syndrome. 'It's the result of isolation, not enough space, and having to play the fool for too long,' he says, and adds: 'That's what happens when you take wildlife out of the wild.'
It's important to recognize that Stephania's physical problems are directly linked to her mental health. She has become sick because she is depressed, not the other way around. In consequence, in order for her to regain her health, she must first regain her desire to live.
Working on the premise that habitat dictates behavior is the key to understanding Stephania's condition: It's the concrete tank and lack of quality of life that's making her depressed. Therefore, the first step in the rehabilitation process is to get out of the tank and into natural seawater where she can once again experience all the elements of nature that make life worth living for a dolphin: The natural rhythm of the sea, the tides and currents, and the exposure of live fish.
The Tele Images Nature team has started building a medical pen in the pristine waters of Albuquerque Island -- 26 miles to the south -- and we are told that wild dolphins frequently enter the reef surrounding the island. We are very encouraged by this, as finally seeing other bottlenose dolphins will no doubt help Stephania in her healing process.
On the 28th of February, with the help of the army, Stephania is finally removed from her filthy tank, placed on a stretcher, and lowered into a transport box.
Stephania remains completely calm during the 4-hour boat ride from San Andres to 
Albuquerque. The team keeps the dolphin's sensitive skin wet during the whole trip and applies a lanolin-mixture to protect the dolphin from the sun.
At 1. p.m. Stephania is carried from the boat to the awaiting 35 by 35 by 35 meters large pen on the eastern side of the small island.
The dolphin is gently lowered into the water. After 11 years of captivity, Stephania is
finally reunited with the ocean, and no doubt she must be wondering what this is all about. Suddenly, there are no concrete walls to stop her movements, and she can't simply rest her tail on a concrete floor for balance anymore. Her muscles are stiff after the long journey and not surprisingly; her first reaction is that of confusion. She immediately seeks a sense of security by swimming to the fence, as close to shore as possible. Ric enters the water and calms her down. Then he guides her to deeper water and shortly hereafter she accepts the fresh, indigenous fish he gives her.
When seeing Stephania in the crystal clear water, we can't help but wonder if she recalls the blue depths and varied sounds of the ocean world she was so violently pulled out of all these years ago. Does she remember that this is where she came from?
The fact is that captive dolphins all have a different story to tell and experience wide-ranging degrees of abuse by their keepers. We don't know to what extent Stephania's emotional state has been damaged from years of captivity, and how much she still remembers of the life she had before she was captured. In the weeks to come, our work is to simply help her build up her mental attitude and health. As time goes by -- as we get to know her better -- we will explore the possibility of successfully releasing her back into the wild. Because that was our original goal: To help Stephania regain her identity as a wild dolphin. But this we know: It's going to take time.
It's important to note that from now on Stephania should have no more contact with 
any of her former trainers. Swimming with Stephania and treating her as a pet stands in the way of helping her become independent of people, thus undermining our efforts to rehabilitate her. It's essential to the rehabilitation process that all the people who bonded with her during her time spent in captivity let go of her, once and for all, allowing her a fresh start and a new life.
Whether Stephania can be released or not, one thing is certain: She will never again experience confinement in a concrete tank or have to perform circus tricks for food. Finally, some quality has been added to her life. The healing process has begun.
MARCH 1998
Frederic Lepage succeeds in persuading the Seaquarium into letting four of the hawksbill turtles join Stephania in Albuquerque, and on the 1st of March they are introduced to the sea pen. We will fatten them up and release them.
Unfortunately, the Seaquarium will not allow for the sea lion Andrea to come to the island, and together with the remaining turtles she will be transferred to the dolphinarium of Santa Marta, Colombia.
Stephania is responding well to the healing process and seems to enjoy all the space she suddenly has. For 11 years she has been restricted to swimming in small circles of the tanks she has lived in -- endless circles that brought her nowhere. Certainly, that's not what nature intended for this torpedo shaped, evolutionary masterpiece the dolphin really is, and in the sea pen Stephania can once again put her swimming abilities to full use.
Unlike the stagnant water of a concrete tank, the ocean is alive, with salty waves sweeping over Stephania's body and a strong current pushing her from underneath. It's been such a long time since she has felt the natural rhythm of the sea, and in the beginning she seems bewildered at all this movement. Furthermore, the many years of captivity have weakened her muscles, the muscles literally atrophying, and we watch her from the beach as she struggles to keep her balance, bouncing back and forth in whichever direction the currents and tides take her.
It's wonderful to see how, in a matter of just a few days, Stephania adjusts to the natural elements of the sea and spends much time exploring her new habitat. The tides and currents are important elements in the rehabilitation process, as they will help her build up her physical strength. Furthermore, her new environment stimulates her appetite. When we first found her at the Seaquarium, she was refusing to eat, having to be force-fed. Within just a few hours after having been introduced to natural seawater, she became a very hungry dolphin, on her second day eating a total of 9 kilos.
Stephania's good appetite tells us that she wants to live, and during the month of March she continues to increase her food intake, reaching and maintaining an average of 11 kilos of freshly caught, indigenous fish daily. We supplement her diet with Super Cell Tech Brand Blue-Green Algae vitamins.
Once in a while Stephania exhibits 'show behaviors,' standing upright in the water by letting her tail rest on the ocean floor, nodding her head up and down, or swimming upside down waving her flippers at whoever is looking at her. In the dolphinariums she has worked in, she was rewarded with food for each of these abnormal behaviors, and they seem to have become such an integrated part of her behavioral repertoire that in her mind they are normal. But she no longer has to perform circus tricks for food, and when she waves her flippers there is no applause. When we simply don't pay any attention to her trained behaviors, she will eventually let go of them, allowing her normal dolphin behaviors to re-emerge from her memory.
During the first week of this month, we feed Stephania exclusively cut fish. At this point our main focus is to build up her health and increase her body weight.
When -- at the middle of the month -- we introduce whole fish to her diet, once again we are reminded that all dolphins are different. Some very quickly resume to their ability of chasing and catching live fish, while others need more guidance and time. As it turns out, Stephania belongs to the latter category.
In most captivity facilities in Europe and the United States, dolphins are rewarded with a whole fish for a correctly performed trick. However, in the dolphinariums of Santa Marta and San Andres, obtaining enough fish for the dolphins isn't always possible, and if the dolphins were fed a whole fish for each performed trick, very soon there would be no fish left in the bucket. In other words, there would be no food reward left to induce the dolphins to continue performing. Therefore, in order to expand the length of show time, the fish is cut in small pieces. Stephania has become so used to this unnatural diet she wants nothing else, and getting her onto a natural diet of live fish that she has to catch herself is a process done in as many as six steps.
The first step is to get Stephania to eat fish cut in half. We do so by continuing to feed her small pieces of fish and once in a while placing half a fish in her mouth. To begin with, she rejects the half fish but we keep trying, knowing that she will eventually accept her new diet. When she does, we gradually reduce the amount of small pieces of fish and increase the amount of half fish, eventually eliminating the small pieces altogether.
In step two, we get Stephania to accept whole, dead fish. We do so by continuing to feed her fish cut in half and once in a while placing a whole fish in her mouth, until she feels comfortable swallowing it. Again, we gradually reduce the amount of half fish and increase the amount of whole fish until she eats only whole fish.
The third step involves getting Stephania used to eating a variety of indigenous fish by introducing different types of fish. This step turns out to be easy, as Stephania likes many kinds of fish: jack, red snapper, needlefish, big eye, grouper, and yellowtail.
In step four, we acquaint Stephania with live fish, by simply placing the live fish in her mouth. The first times we do this she seems very surprised that the fish is actually moving. She lets go of it immediately and watches in surprise as her food swims away from her. As soon as she figures out how to hold on to the fish with her teeth, position it head first, and swallow it whole, we eliminate the dead fish altogether.
In step five, we place the live fish right in front of Stephania. At this stage it's important to increase her self-confidence by enhancing her chances of getting hold of the fish. Therefore, to begin with, the fish must be weakened. Submerging the fish in ice water just before it's placed in front of her does that. We gradually increase the distance between Stephania and the fish, in this way building up to the actual chase.
At the end of the month of March, we reach the sixth step: The actual chase of the fish. We throw the fish in the middle of the sea pen, in this way eliminating the risk of the fish escaping through the fence and giving Stephania the maximum 'work space.' Again, we enhance Stephania's chances of a successful chase by submerging the fish in ice water before it's introduced to the sea pen.
Stephania makes many wholehearted attempts at catching the fish. We keep score of how many she catches and how many get away, and at the end of this step only fast swimming fish are introduced to the sea pen.
Stephania feeds very differently on dead and live fish. When fed dead fish she behaves like a beggar, her head out of the water and a 'feed-me'-look in her eye. When chasing live fish, she acquires an air of self-confidence we haven't seen in her before. She acts like a wild animal, tossing the fish in front of her to catch it again and swimming off at fast speed to swallow the fish in privacy. We are very encouraged by this observation.
However, we have a problem providing enough live fish for Stephania. Two local fishermen are working for the project but they can't possibly keep up with Stephania's appetite, and often we have to purchase frozen fish from San Andres to supplement her diet.
It's counterproductive in the rehabilitation process to be feeding Stephania dead fish at this point. She clearly prefers live fish to dead, and sometimes even rejects the dead fish, which is a very healthy sign and something that should be encouraged rather than discouraged. Ric puts it this way: 'Every time we feed her a dead fish, we are taking a step backwards.' But we have no choice. The fact that Stephania is still underweight is our primary concern, and stabilizing her normal weight comes first. The possibility of release comes second.
We are also discouraged by Stephania's stereotypical behavior. At the end of the month of March it's almost as if the novelty of her new sea pen has worn off, and between feedings she resumes her old habit of swimming in a clockwise circle the size of the Seaquarium tank. She keeps her head above the water, looking for people and a handout of fish, just like she did at the dolphin parks that she lived and worked in for 11 years.
The challenge is to try to turn all of this around. The presence of wild dolphins close to the sea pen would be a great help in our efforts, but we still haven't seen a single wild dolphin inside the reef.
We suggest a new and bigger sea pen be built for Stephania, deep enough for her to dive and made with larger mesh that will allow fish to enter the sea pen, encouraging Stephania to chase and catch fish on her own.
Stephania's good appetite and her overall active behavior tell us that she is recovering physically. Time will tell if she can become wild again.
APRIL 1998
April 9th, Stephania is removed from the medical pen, and Dr. Cyril Hue performs a complete physical examination on her. She has come a long way since we first found her in the small, filthy tank at the Seaquarium. Weighing 125 kg, she has gained 26 kg, and her ribs are much less noticeable.
After the examination Stephania is placed in her new habitat: a large sea pen on the opposite side of the island. The sea pen that measures 45 by 45 by 50 meters and is 7 meters deep at the deepest end is teeming with edible fish, and this should motivate Stephania to start chasing and catching fish on her own. Our hope is that the new and improved sea pen will finally break her stereotypical behavior.
Dr. Cyril Hue inspects the four turtles. He weighs, measures, photographs and tags them before introducing them to the new sea pen.
Shortly after the move, we see Stephania leaping for the first time. However, she quickly reverts to her behavior of swimming near the shore, in a small clockwise circle, as if the movements of her body have taken a permanent circular shape from moving in circles in small tanks for so many years. She keeps her head above the water and looks for a handout and human company. We discourage this unnatural behavior by roping off the shallow end near the beach.
April 12th the new sea pen is accidentally hit on the southwest corner by a Coast Guard boat. The accident causes a part of the sea pen to collapse, and the four turtles swim into the open sea. The fishermen in the area have been told to leave them alone, and in the many weeks to come we see them every day off the western side of the island. They seem to adjust well to their new environment.
Stephania, however, shows no interest in the open gate to freedom. She continues to swim in a small circle as close to shore as possible, with her head above the water and constantly looking towards the beach.
For a dolphin to focus so much on what's above the water is not natural, and the abnormal behavior we see in Stephania can be observed in varied degrees in all captive dolphins. Again, habitat dictates behavior. The environment of captive dolphins is unnatural, and so the behavior of captive dolphins becomes unnatural. This is precisely what the captivity industry wants, of course, since it's the unnatural behaviors of dolphins that draw the huge, paying audiences. The spectators have come to be amused and expect the dolphins to jump though hoops, kiss their trainers, walk on their tail, and make themselves visible by sticking their heads out of the water.
These abnormal behaviors are methodically enforced in captive dolphins by two methods:
1. Giving the dolphins a fish when they exhibit a desired, abnormal behavior. (The captivity industry calls this training method positive reward.)
2. Depriving the dolphins of living in accordance with their true nature.
One example of the second method is the sensory deprivation that's imposed on captive dolphins.
Dolphins are sound oriented. They communicate producing a large spectrum of sounds in the form of clicks and whistles. Furthermore, they constantly send out bursts of sounds of many different frequencies to explore their ocean environment. With reflected sound, called echolocation or sonar, dolphins can 'see' elements that are invisible for animals -- including humans -- that are sight oriented, depending on reflected light for vision. This is how dolphins searching for food can easily detect a fish that's hiding under the sand.
The use of sonar is as important to dolphins as eyesight to humans. Chris Catton in his book Dolphins writes:
'The ability of dolphins to make a wide range of sounds and to hear clearly underwater is important because they rely on these faculties in almost every aspect of their daily lives.'
Captive dolphins are severely restricted in using their sonar. They can't use it to catch live fish, as they are fed dead fish as food rewards. Neither can they put it to full use to explore their underwater world, because there isn't much to explore in a concrete tank.
Sensory deprivation is one of the most damaging aspects of keeping dolphins in a concrete tank. It's like forcing a person to wear a blindfold for the rest of his life. Without doubt, confining dolphins in a barren, lifeless environment with hardly anything to stimulate their curiosity and sensitive sensory sense is a very effective way of forcing them to replace their natural behaviors with the abnormal behavior of focusing their attention where the food and visual stimuli is found: above water.
The sensory deprivation Stephania has endured during her 11 years of captivity has been put to the extreme by the fact that for all this time she hasn't had another bottlenose dolphins to interact with. She has had to stick her head out of the water constantly in order to get any kind of attention, and now it seems like she is more interested in the terrestrial world of human beings than the underwater world of dolphins, and even though she has a large sea pen to explore, she spends most of her time on the surface of the water, swimming in a circle and keeping her head above the water.
The only time Stephania discontinues her stereotypical behavior is when she is fed live fish. We see several very promising chases, and when chasing a live fish, Stephania becomes like a wild animal again. Very often, after a live fish feeding, she leaps high in the air and swims very fast underwater. This is the kind of behavior we are looking for, and we do as many live fish feedings as we can.
Ideally, we would feed Stephania only live fish at this point, but we have an ongoing problem of getting a sufficient and constant supply of live fish. The fact that we are in such a remote location complicates our efforts, and sometimes even purchasing dead fish is difficult. There are days when, due to bad weather, the fishing boats can't go to sea. The same is true for the fishermen in San Andres, whom we depend on for a supplement of frozen fish. Some days the fish supply must be airdropped because of bad weather conditions.
MAY 1998
We have now had three months to evaluate Stephania's progress, monitoring her very carefully both day and night. We think she may be a candidate to be successfully returned to the wild, but not in the immediate future.
Although Stephania has gained weight and strengthened her muscles, she still has a long way to go in terms of reaching her ideal target weight of approximately 170 kg. In the first 40 days she gained 26 kg, but during the month of May her weight gain seems to have leveled off. The fact is Stephania is still underweight, and for this reason alone, releasing her soon is not realistic.
In our report for the month of March, we describe the technique used to get Stephania to eat only live fish that she has to chase and catch herself. Because live fish is simply not available to us, we have had to abandon this technique completely, and the number of live fish introduced to the sea pen has steadily decreased throughout this month.
It's been very windy and rainy lately, adding to our problem of obtaining enough fish for Stephania. Veronica Duport and Larry Zogby -- a volunteer who has been very helpful throughout the project -- both work hard to obtain enough fish for Stephania, but this has proven a very difficult task. More often than not, feeding Stephania live fish is a luxury we just can't afford. When we only have a limited amount of fish for a whole day's feeding, we can't risk any fish getting away during the chase. We therefore eliminate the chase altogether by killing the fish or insure that the catch is successful by submerging the fish in a bucket of ice water.
Stephania's health and practicing preventative medicine is our primary concern, and in terms of making sure she reaches her daily food intake of approximately 26 pounds, our method usually works. But obviously, it's not going to help Stephania become an opportunistic forager.
Another difficulty we have to deal with is the fact that Stephania is living in isolation. As mentioned earlier, this is very stressful for a dolphin, causing loneliness and ultimately depression. This is a problem we inherited from the Seaquarium, and we now know it can't be solved in this location. We have learned from local fishermen that wild bottlenose dolphins never enter the reef.
To our knowledge, Stephania may in fact be the only captive dolphin left in isolation in the world. So many years of isolation would affect the mental health of any intelligent and social being, and Stephania continues to fall into a state of melancholy, sometimes spending the day swimming in the same, familiar clockwise circle. At other times she simply stays motionless on the surface of the water, facing the same spot next to the fence, and we have to put sunscreen on the upper part of her body to prevent her from getting sun burnt.
Until we can connect Stephania up with other bottlenose dolphins, we see three possible ways of breaking her boredom and stereotypical behavior:
1. Constantly introducing live fish into different areas of the sea pen for Stephania to chase and catch. This would stimulate her interest in the under water world and motivate her to chase and catch fish on her own. Furthermore, it would get her to normalize her swimming behavior and use more of her sea pen.
2. Moving Stephania to an area where there are wild dolphins. This would definitely stimulate her interest in the underwater world and take her mind off her own troubles.
A combination of the two would be ideal. This has proven very successful in the past.
3. Introducing another captive dolphin to the sea pen to rehabilitate with her.
It's important to emphasize that while implementing these changes may very well alter Stephania's stereotypical behavior and improve the quality of her life; she must be in perfect health and prove herself capable of fending for herself before release can even be considered.
We continue to feed Stephania at the deep end of the sea pen in order to encourage her to spend more time here. However, she often refuses to leave the shallow end of the sea pen, as if afraid of the deep water.
We suspect Stephania to have been captured at a very young age, when she was only just beginning to chase fish on her own. Since then, she has been kept in substandard captivity facilities where the animals were lucky to be fed at all. She has been hauled around by truck and airplane, not knowing where she was going and what would happen to her next. For 11 long years she has performed 'educational' dolphin shows, entertaining a never-ending line of people demanding casual amusement, and throughout all this time -- under the usual pretext of 'loving' dolphins -- dolphin trainers have been training her, interacting and bonding with her, hugging and kissing her, and riding her by her dorsal fin. In all of her life, Stephania has spent more time with humans than with other bottlenose dolphins, turning her life into a humanized mess and leaving permanent marks on her mental health.
I now know precisely what Ric means when he talks about 'human imprints overriding nature.' Stephania is a living example of this phenomenon that does indeed represent the true tragedy of captivity. Forever separated from her family pod and her ocean world, Stephania has become a cripple of the sea, afraid of deep water and unfamiliar with the sounds of the ocean that was once her home.
The rehabilitation team has done an excellent job in rescuing and rehabilitating a doomed dolphin. No doubt, Stephania's life has been saved. However, she is far from having regained her natural survival skills, and in our opinion her ultimate release should be considered a separate project.
JUNE 1998
Stephania has started to show visible signs of gaining weight again, her peanut head becoming much less noticeable. She maintains a healthy appetite for a variety of indigenous fish, eating up to 26 pounds a day. This is very positive and encouraging.
Unfortunately, none of the three suggested methods to break her stereotypical 
behavior is possible to implement in this area: We cannot get enough live fish, and nowhere have we been able to locate a coastal area with other bottlenose dolphins. As could be expected, finding another captive dolphin to rehabilitate with her is impossible.
Time is running out for us. We receive word from Tele Images Nature in Paris that they need to finish their film production, and a decision must be made this month whether Stephania can be released in the near future or not.
The conclusion that we reached at the end of May has not changed: It would be irresponsible to release Stephania at this point and in this location.
We should all bear in mind that Stephania was a sick and depressed dolphin in the process of dying when we found her at Seaquarium in February1998. She was being force fed and weighed a shocking 99 kg when we took over the responsibility of her care and feeding, and during our work with Stephania we have been faced with the complexity of trying to do two things at once:
1. Healing a sick dolphin.
2. Preparing her for release.
This has been a learning process for all of us, and we have come to realize that this is simply not possible to do within a short period of time.
Historically, this is the first rehabilitation project involving a sick and dying dolphin, complicated by years of isolation. Expecting Stephania to be ready to be released back into the wild in the near future is simply too much, too soon.
Stephania is a special case and needs special attention. We have to plan her release accordingly and do so within a time frame that she can keep up with.
Albuquerque has been an excellent site for the healing process, but even if Stephania were ready for release, we couldn't possibly release her in this location, as there are no bottlenose dolphins within the reef.
In fact, no dolphins of any kind live within the reef. Outside the reef, however, two types of dolphins are found from time to time. To our knowledge these are:
1. Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus, Montagu, 1821), of the deep-water kind, unlike Stephania who is a coastal Tursiops truncatus, of the shallow water kind. These deep-water bottlenose dolphins are much larger and more muscular than Stephania. They are also known as transient dolphins that move from island to island. Stephania is a resident dolphin. She and her pod would stay in the same home range all year round. She is not likely to be accepted into the transient group of dolphins, and even if she were, she could not possibly keep up with them.
2. The other species found outside the reef is much smaller than Stephania. A population study has never been conducted in this area, but we believe these dolphins belong to the species Clymene dolphins. (Stenella clymene, Gray 1850) If so, Stephania obviously couldn't be expected to join this group either.
While it's true that some singular dolphins are living successfully without the benefits of a pod, these dolphins have consciously made the choice themselves to live alone, or they were ostracized from their pod. None of them were put in the position of a solitary life by human design. If released in Albuquerque, Stephania would be the first.
In fact, there is a very distinct pattern to bottlenose dolphins' pod structure that we cannot ignore:
'As they become socially and sexually mature, the youngsters leave the subadult groups they joined after weaning, and males and females go their separate ways. Females join up with other females in 'bands', which typically include ten or so mothers and their most recent offspring. (...) Often a young female leaving a subadult group will rejoin the female band into which she was born, and genetic studies show that many bands consist of the females of families, which have remained together for generations.' (Chris Catton, 'Dolphins', 1995)
If Stephania had not been captured 11 years ago she would most likely still be living with her pod in her original home range, and there is no reason to believe that she does not wish to reconnect with other bottlenose dolphins. We simply have no right to deprive her of the many advantages of belonging to a pod. Neither do we have the right to implement permanent isolation on a social animal.
Compared with the appalling living conditions Stephania was given at the Seaquarium, the quality of her life has improved enormously, and because of this she has regained her physical health. She maintains a healthy appetite and continues to gain weigh, but our efforts to break her stereotypical behavior have failed. We just can't make her stop swimming in that small, clockwise circle. When it comes to easing Stephania's boredom and loneliness, she is beyond our reach, and there is a reason for this: All intelligent and social beings need the company of their own kind, and as long as Stephania is alone, the biggest sea pen in the world is not going to make her happy. Living in isolation, Stephania's life is empty, and even though her life has been saved, she is not really living. This is why she continues to fall into a state of depression.
Having worked with Stephania for many months, we have come to know her well and can say the following with absolute conviction: Giving Stephania the company of other bottlenose dolphins is the right thing to do, and every effort should be made to accomplish this goal. The moment she sees other bottlenose dolphins, it will ring a bell in her mind: 'That's what I am, a bottlenose dolphin!' Her stereotypical behavior will stop, once and for all, because her life will have a purpose again.
One incident, occurring in the middle of the month, confirms to us that Stephania is not ready for release at this early stage: A storm blows down the southwest corner of the sea pen, creating a 10 meter wide and 5 meter deep hole in the fence. We don't have the necessary equipment or personnel to repair the fence, and as time goes by the sea pen progressively deteriorates. Eventually, the opening to the sea is large enough for a large boat to enter, sideways. Yet, Stephania doesn't leave. She stays in her corner at the shallow end of the sea pen, swimming in a circle.
Seen in the light of this incidence, it's meaningless to even talk about releasing Stephania. She is already free! Whatever fence is left does not contain Stephania. Stephania contains herself: She is a prisoner of her own fears and her dependency on people.
We don't think it's so strange that Stephania doesn't jump at the opportunity to swim into the open sea. It just shows what freedom is. Or isn't, rather. In view of the fact that most bottlenose dolphins spend their lives in the company of dolphins of their own kind, for Stephania to be told she is free to live inside a reef where there are no other dolphins, isn't freedom at all. It's frightening. The fact is, she is in isolation on either side of the fence.
One more aspect of the isolation factor that must be taken into consideration is this: There are many sharks of different species living inside the reef of Albuquerque. As long as Stephania is alone, she will not cease her habit of staying motionless on the surface of the water, and this makes her very vulnerable to shark attack.
Apart from the isolation factor, there is another imperative reason why we can't release Stephania in the near future. Of all the dolphins Ric has released before, Stephania stands out as the only one who -- at this stage of the rehabilitation process -- is not catching fish on her own.
Very often her sea pen is teeming with fish that feed on tiny minnows on the surface of the water. It mostly happens in the mornings when Stephania is the hungriest, but she makes no effort to catch the fish. Even though she obviously enjoys chasing live fish that we throw into her sea pen, she is not at all interested in initiating a chase on her own. With the fish literally all over her sea pen, she just lies there, motionless and passive.
Perhaps if we could implement a consistent live fish program, this would arouse Stephania's interest in once again becoming an opportunistic forager, but that's not possible in this remote location. Besides, it wouldn't solve her problem of being in isolation.
It's important that the right decisions are made regarding Stephania's future, and at the end of the month, Ric is summoned to Paris to meet with Frederic Lepage and discuss Stephania's progress and her future. Present at the meeting are also the producer Laurent Zbikowski, production manager Guillaume Bernard, and film director Laurent Frapat.
At the meeting Ric points out that our work thus far should be considered phase one: saving Stephania's life. This in itself is a major victory. The ultimate release of Stephania should be considered phase two, another project. He refers to Stephania's progress reports submitted every month and presents photographs as well as a videotape to document that a big part of the sea pen has collapsed, and Stephania is free to leave but doesn't.
Frederic Lepage agrees with Ric and doesn't seem to have a problem with the fact that Stephania can't be released at this time. He suggests she be moved to a captive dolphin sanctuary that he will create and finance with the son of a former president who owns a great deal of waterfront property in Panama.
Ric approves of the plan. In Panama, Stephania can continue her rehabilitation process and the possibility of implementing phase two, the release project, can be researched. This includes gathering the baseline data regarding the following questions: Exactly where was Stephania captured? How are the water quality and the availability of fish in the area? How are we going to fund the release project? And, of course, whether Stephania is a candidate for release.
Stephania's future looks bright. The only thing Tele Images Nature asks for is a final shot of Stephania outside the sea pen, just to 'show some progress in her rehabilitation process.' We see no problem with this. In fact, giving Stephania the opportunity to explore the immediate area will be a good experience for her, as she spends too much time swimming in circles. While it's true that Stephania refuses to swim to the deep end of the sea pen where the big opening to the ocean is, he feels confident she will leave the sea pen if a gate is cut in the shallow end, where she spends most of her time.
From previous experiences with similar captive dolphins, he knows that it's perfectly safe to do this: It's predictable that Stephania will not leave the immediate area. She is simply too dependent on people.
JULY 1998
When Ric returns from Paris, we cut a large opening in the shallow end of the sea pen. We don't coax Stephania out with food, and it takes her two hours to gather the nerve to swim through the gate. Her behavior outside the sea pen is no different from her behavior inside. She stays on the surface of the water, most of the time lying motionless. She is always keeping an eye on the sea pen and regularly returns to the gate as if to make sure she can still get back in. She doesn't swim into the deep water, and at no time does she travel more than 100 meters away from the gate.
Finally, after four hours, she returns to the sea pen, wanting to be fed. Her behavior confirms to us that she is not ready for release at this time.
In the middle of July, we receive news from Tele Images Nature in Paris. An attempt to release Stephania will be made anyhow. We are very surprised at this sudden change of plans and in response write a position paper reiterating all the reasons why Stephania cannot be released here and now.
At the end of the month, the Tele Images Nature film crew arrives from Paris, accompanied by Umberto Pelizzari. Frederic Lepage has sent his production manager, Guillaume Bernard, to represent him, and he informs us that it's not possible to obtain a permit to take Stephania out of Colombia, and for this reason alone, bringing her to Panama is not realistic. He confirms that an attempt at releasing Stephania will be made.
Tele Images Nature and Ric have a difference of opinion. According to Tele Images Nature, Stephania needs to be forced into freedom. They give us three options:
1. Take the entire sea pen down and call that freedom.
2. Capture Stephania, put her in a boat and take her to the deep water on the other side of the reef.
3. Lure Stephania to the other side of the reef with dead fish.
We argue that all of the three methods are unacceptable, and that it would be irresponsible and unethical to release Stephania here and now, for the reasons already mentioned. Forcing a dolphin that's afraid of being alone in deep water to venture into the open sea beyond the reef is not a release at all. It's abandonment.
Ric is standing firm. He is not going to allow the release of Stephania at this time or in this location. After consulting with Dr. Cyril Hue, he agrees, and during a meeting, copies of our position paper are passed around and read by everybody present. Having read the position paper and seen for themselves that a big part of the sea pen is down in deep water and the only thing keeping Stephania from leaving is her own reluctance to do so, everybody agrees that Stephania should not be released.
Since we cannot take Stephania out of Colombia and since it's not possible to create a dolphin sanctuary in the near future, we are happy when the owner of the Oceanario Islas del Rosario -- Rafael Vieira -- accepts boarding Stephania temporarily.
At the Rosario Islands, an aquarium near Cartagena, Colombia, the dolphins are kept in sea pens, affording at least some benefits of the ocean. Finally, Stephania's isolation and depression will come to an end, and there is a good chance that spending time with other dolphins will normalize her swimming behavior.
It's important to note that Stephania, unlike the other dolphins at the park, will not be performing shows.
At 10 am on the 29th of July, the gate to Stephania's sea pen is once again opened. This time she is even less interested in leaving the sea pen than the first time. After three hours she swims through the gate, coaxed out with food, and the film crew gets the final shot of Stephania in the open sea. Again, she spends most of her time lying motionless and inactive on the surface of the water and after a few hours swims back into the safety of her sea pen to be fed.
The film crew leaves, and Veronica Duport and Larry Zogby arrange for Stephania to be transported to the Rosario Islands. This includes obtaining a permit from the local environmental group Coralina to move Stephania from Albuquerque.
AUGUST 1998
With the help of Dr. Cyril Hue, Stephania is captured in the early morning of August 5th. She now weighs 137 kg, and her total weight gain since the end of February 1998 is 38 kg.
During the following four-hour boat ride to San Andres, Stephania remains calm. From San Andres she is transported by truck to a private saltwater swimming pool where she spends the night. At noon the next day Stephania is removed from the swimming pool, placed in a stretcher and carried to the waiting truck. The drive to the airport takes 25 minutes, and here she is loaded aboard a Colombian Air force Cargo plane and flown to Cartagena de Indias. We wet her down constantly during the three hours long flight, and after a safe landing she is brought by truck to the local marina and loaded aboard a small, open boat that will take us to the Rosario Islands.
It's dark when we arrive at the Rosario Islands at around 7 p.m. Rosario Island staff carries Stephania to the sea pen that separates her from the five other dolphins.
The sea pen has been built inside of a lagoon and part of it faces a wall of stones. Stephania stays as close to this wall as possible. She seems confused and afraid and spends the night lying still on the surface of the water, her head facing the wall.
The next morning Stephania swims over to the fence and makes contact with the other dolphins. She is as curious about them as they about her, and we watch her for hours as she swims very fast by the fence, leaping and diving and not once sticking her head out of the water.
In the following days Stephania adjusts well to her new habitat. For the first time we see her exhibit a normal swimming behavior. She spends most of her time under water, interacting with the other dolphins through the fence. All of this assures us that she is in the right place for now.
For a very long time Stephania was probably one of the loneliest dolphins in the world. Giving her the possibility of interacting with dolphins of her own kind was the right thing to do. At the Rosario Islands her healing process will continue. She will build muscle power and continue to gain weight.
Phase one is complete and has been very successful. Our work with Stephania illustrates that this work is not always about freeing a particular animal. It's about doing the right thing.
FOR AN UPDATE ON DOLPHIN STEPHANIA, GO TO 'RESCUE OF DOLPHIN STEPHANIA PART ll'
Copyright Dolphin Project 1998
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