Environment: Joe And Rosie Go for It

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In mid-July on a tidal creek among Georgia's coastal islands, six people ceremoniously untied the gates of an underwater pen that for the previous 28 days had contained two very civilized bottle-nosed dolphins. The finny pair disappeared from view. Moments later they surfaced upstream, defying predictions that they would not voluntarily leave behind the comforts of captivity. Overcome, one observer broke into tears. Wild dolphins might roam 50 miles daily, but this pair had spent seven of their eight years in cramped enclosures.

The release of the dolphins was the work of the Oceanic Research Communication Alliance, a ragtag team of dolphin lovers and scientists. Most previous attempts to release captive dolphins have been ad hoc or ill conceived. In 1977, for example, animal liberationists "freed" two dolphins from a tank in Hawaii. Hours later one of them was briefly spotted foundering on a reef, badly lacerated. Even so, scientists and conservationists are - increasingly interested in readapting captive or injured sea animals to the wilds. Last month the New England Aquarium, with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, organized a successful attempt to return to the ocean three pilot whales that had washed up on a Cape Cod beach. The $150,000 ORCA effort was the first attempt to develop an entire program for retraining captive dolphins for life at sea. "Projects like this are extremely important," says Whale Expert Roger Payne. "They open up new ways for dealing with captive animals."

The two dolphins were captured in 1979, after New York Investor Alan Slifka agreed to help finance a dubious dolphin-human communication experiment. It was a bust. The young dolphins, named Joe and Rosie after the late movie magnate Joseph E. Levine, who produced Day of the Dolphin (1973), and his wife Rosalie, attracted the attention of a parade of celebrities, including Phyllis Diller, Kris Kristofferson and Olivia Newton-John. Some notables even swam with the pair at Marine World/Africa USA in Redwood City, Calif.

Things began to sour for Joe and Rosie in 1984, when they were shipped to Key Largo, Fla. Rosie gave birth but did not nurse her calf, which soon died. Then, in May 1985, Slifka visited Joe and Rosie. Moved by their confinement, he vowed, "I'm going to get you out of this mess." Shortly thereafter, ORCA was formed.

By the fall of 1986, ORCA had a team, a release site and a detailed plan. Heading the group were two Californians, Virginia Coyle and James Hickman. Abigail Alling, a whale biologist, located remote tidal creeks in Georgia that abound with wild dolphins. Richard O'Barry, the former trainer for the Flipper television series, was hired to "untrain" the dolphins.

ORCA developed its plan for the release in consultation with the federal Marine Mammal Commission. Last fall the project got under way. Alling taped underwater sounds at the Georgia site to familiarize the dolphins with their new habitat. To deprogram them, O'Barry simply reversed normal training procedures. Instead of rewarding the dolphins when they performed, he would turn his back. To ease their transition to catching moving fish for food, the team clipped the tails off mullet to slow them down.