DOLPHINS
A gripping adventure and poignant love story about two idealistic people who dedicate their lives to sea mammals to forget about themselves.
Join Liz, an emotionally wounded American animal rights journalist, as she ventures to Japan on a mission to expose the capturing of dolphins for human entertainment. She clashes with the rigid culture and with Kaito, a repressed Japanese dolphin trainer fixated on communicating with dolphins to help humankind.
Despite their vast differences, their mutual love of dolphins opens a crack to their inner barriers. They join forces to protect the animals from fisherman and corrupt politicians who will do anything to silence them.
I was inspired to write Somewhere Beyond the Sea, under my DD Berquist name because I realized it was a true love story and because of a fellow named, Rick O’Barry. Read below to learn how his love for the animal, not only transformed his life, but helped to transform the way we look at and need to respect dolphins in the wild.
Dolphin Trainer, To Dolphin Defender
In the 1960s, O’Barry was employed by the Miami Seaquarium, where he captured and trained dolphins, including the five dolphins who played the role of Flipper in the popular American TV series of the same name. He also trained Hugo, the first orca kept in captivity east of the Mississippi. When Kathy, the dolphin who played Flipper most of the time died in his arms, O’Barry realized that capturing dolphins and training them to perform silly tricks is simply wrong. From that moment on, O’Barry knew what he must do with his life.
On the first Earth Day, 1970, he launched a searing campaign against the multi-billion dollar dolphin captivity industry, and the Dolphin Project was born.
Over the past 54 years, Ric O’Barry has rescued and rehabilitated dolphins in many countries around the world, including Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Brazil, South Korea, the Bahamas Islands and the United States. He is a leading voice in the fight to end brutal dolphin hunts in Japan, Solomon Islands, Faroe Islands, Indonesia and wherever else they occur.
O’Barry was the star of the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, the Animal Planet mini-series, Blood Dolphin$, and was featured in the Netflix documentary, Seaspiracy.
Reprinted from the Dolphin Project | Let’s Protect Dolphins Together
Rescuers helping free more than a hundred dolphins from the Cape Cod shoreline on the mass stranding that began June 28 — the largest involving dolphins in U.S. history.
The group estimated that 102 dolphins survived the multi-day event. There were 37 natural deaths and seven dolphins had to be euthanized. Why do dolphins strand themselves?
Why do groups of dolphins strand themselves? Here’s what the scientists at https://www.noaa.gov/ say:
In many stranding cases, the cause of stranding is unknown, but some identified causes include
- Infectious disease, including parasite infestation
- Starvation (e.g., associated with El Niño events)
- Pollution exposure
- Unusual weather or oceanographic events
- Trauma (e.g., injuries from ship strikes or fishery entanglements)
- Sound (human-generated or natural)
- Harmful algal blooms and associated biotoxins
