Life as a dolphin trainer

“I was as ignorant as I could be, for as long as I could be”

 

After 3 months as a member of the collecting team, he joined an expedition to capture the world’s only known albino dolphin in South Carolina. There was a great deal of public criticism, many people protested their actions and wrote letters to newspapers, went on radio talk shows, and some even went out on boats to follow them and disrupt them. Ironic that at the time, O’ Barry could not understand their feelings or protests, but would later go on to use similar methods in his campaigns for the freedom of dolphins.

After 10 months, they finally managed to catch the albino dolphin and her pup, and both of them were placed in Miami Seaquarium as the star attractions. The albino dolphin was named Carolina Snowball, and she died 3 years later.

Source: Dolphin Project archive

O’Barry in Miami Seaquarium. Source: Dolphin Project archive

After that successful expedition, Ric O’ Barry begun working as a diver in the Underwater Show, a dream job for him. Soon, he was promoted and became an assistant to Jimmy Kline, one of the two dolphin trainers working at the Miami Seaquarium at the time, and it was then that he got his start performing in dolphin shows.

 

 

It was also there that he met another one of his mentors, Ricou Browning, a co-creator of Flipper, the movie.O’Barry was inspired by the novel and innovative ways that Browning would use to train dolphins. These included rewarding dolphins with a piece of fish instead of a whole fish, so that the dolphins would perform longer as it took a longer time to satiate their hunger. He would also join the dolphins in the water to train them, instead of using the traditional topside approach. The two of them bonded over training Susie. She was the dolphin playing Flipper, and O’Barry happened to be the one who had personally weaned her and fed her by hand when her mother died.

O'Barry with Flipper. Source: earthisland.org

O’Barry with Flipper. Source: earthisland.org

And so in 1964, O’Barry became the trainer and caretaker of all 5 of the dolphins who eventually played Flipper in the television series, he had also assisted in all of their captures. Their names were : Susie, Kathy, Patty, Scottie, and Squirt. Kathy was his favourite. He also worked on the Flipper television series as a trainer of other animals, most notably Pete the pelican, a brown pelican he caught on Biscaybe Bay. He could make Pete nod, shake his head, seem hesitant, and even trained it to “nod sadly”.

As the filming steadily progressed, Susie, the original Flipper dolphin, started becoming rougher and more aggressive with people, the divers, crew members, and the actors. O’Barry sensed that her behavior was not just about play and testing limits, it was also the “frustration of being at odds with one’s true nature.” Consequently, he began slowly replacing her with Kathy.

In 1968, after his work with the Flipper television series ended, O’Barry went back to work for the Miami Seaquarium. This time, he worked with Hugo, a newly acquired killer whale. However, he grew disenchanted with his work, and traveled to India for some time.

O'Barry with Hugo. Source: Dolphin Project archive

O’Barry with Hugo. Source: Dolphin Project archive

In 1970, on his return from India, he received an urgent call from the Seaquarium, telling him that Kathy was ill. He immediately rushed down, and jumped into her tank with her. And it is there, in his arms, that Kathy took her last breath and died. No matter how much he tried to revive her, she was gone. “Why are we doing this?” he asked. Her death marked the end of his career as a dolphin trainer and the start of his activism.