Escape of the Dolphins

Big tanks to frolic in, lots of fresh fish to eat, two friendly keepers--what more could a couple of 350-lb. female Atlantic bottlenosed dolphins want? Well, maybe the freedom of the seas. At least that was the thinking of their nighttime caretakers, both former University of Hawaii students who five weeks ago let the dolphins, named Kea and Puka, escape into the Pacific from the Kewalo Basin Marine Research Facility of the University of Hawaii. The two men, Steve Sipman, 26, and Ken LeVasseur, 26, argued that the dolphins were "slaves" that were "undergoing remorseless experiments."

Now everyone has lost. The Oahu grand jury has indicted both keepers for grand theft. The Kewalo Basin's director, Louis M. Herman, discounts the argument that the experiments were heinous: scientists were teaching the mammals to understand two-word sentences by means of computer beeps, and the dolphins were on the verge of learning three-word sentences. All that research, which cost close to $500,000, is down the drain. Worse, says Herman. Kea and Puka, untrained to feed themselves and unable to communicate with Pacific dolphins, are doubtless dead by now, the victims of starvation, sharks --and mindless good intentions.

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