In 2011 Global Ocean supported The Born Free Foundation and their 'Back to the Blue' Project:

During spring and summer 2010, Born Free Foundation’s Travellers’ Alert! campaign received complaints from concerned tourists regarding two bottlenose dolphins held in a swimming pool style structure in Hisaronu, south east Turkey. At the same time, a Turkish expatriate group, Dolphin Angels, held demonstrations in outrage at the dolphins’ conditions and a Facebook campaign was mounting. A team from Born Free, including Programmes Director Alison Hood and Senior consultant vet John Knight visited the site to investigate. The findings included a hastily constructed, extremely small, poorly filtered pool, in which two large dolphins swam in their own waste.

After considerable negotiations with the owners and an agreement being reached, Born Free, in collaboration with Turkish organisation, Underwater Research Society (SAD) and Dolphin Angels, in September 2010, an emergency rescue of Misha and Tom was undertaken and they were relocated to a sea pen in southern Turkey. Misha and Tom were subsequently moved to an adjacent large, deep rehabilitation sea pen constructed by Born Free.

Partnered by SAD, the project demands a diverse team including overseas marine mammal experts Jeff Foster and Stephen McCulloch as well as British Divers Marine Life Rescue, Senior vet consultant John Knight , local carers and volunteers, all with the ultimate goal to rehabilitate Misha and Tom and release them back to the expansive ocean from where they were captured.

READ THE LATEST UPDATE ON THIS PROJECT HERE

For further information on this project see Born Free’s site HERE