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Boksuni

An Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin that showed signs of depression after being illegally captured in waters near Jeju and forced to perform in a dolphin show has now returned home and given birth to offspring. This is the third dolphin, after two others named “Chunsami” and “Sampari,” to give birth in the wild upon being returned to the sea.

A dolphin research team at Jeju National University announced on Aug. 23, “We have observed ‘Boksuni,’ an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, swimming with offspring on several occasions. Dolphins typically keep their young in a ‘mother-calf position,’ where the offspring stick close to the mother’s side, which suggests that the young dolphins are her own.”

The research team saw Boksuni and her offspring in coastal waters near Daejeong-eup, Jeju, with their own eyes on Aug. 20. After looking through photographs taken by a monitoring camera, they were able to confirm that the same activity had been observed on Aug. 7, 8, 9 and 10. The young dolphins had clear “fetal folds” on their bodies, indicating that they had been born recently. Fetal folds are a striped pattern found on the bodies of newly-born dolphins.

Kim Byeong-yeop, a marine science professor at Jeju National University and head of the research team, said, “The last day on which Boksuni was observed without offspring was July 28, so it appears that she gave birth between late July and early August. The birth of these dolphins will go a long way towards restoring the number of bottlenose dolphins, which are critically endangered in this region. At present, only a hundred or so are alive.”

A total of seven dolphins had been returned to their natural habitat near Jeju by the end of last year, beginning with the release of three dolphins, including “Jedori,” in 2013. These dolphins used to perform in shows at Seoul Grand Park. Five of the dolphins were able to join existing pods and successfully integrate back into the wild, and Sampari and Chunsami gave birth to offspring in 2016.

The dolphins were returned to the wild thanks to a joint effort between the government and the animal advocacy groups. Korea is currently the only country in the world that has seen aquarium dolphins released back into nature successfully reproduce.

Boksuni’s life has had its fair share of challenges. In 2009, she was caught in a net along with Jedori off the coast of Sinpung Village on Jeju Island, which marked the beginning of her life in an aquarium at Pacific Land in the Jeju city of Seogwipo. She was not a frequent star in the dolphin shows there, however, partly because of a deformity – her crooked rostrum, or snout – and partly because she frequently refused to eat and grew lethargic.

A Supreme Court ruling in 2013 ordering the confiscation of dolphins caught illegally seemed to be a hopeful development for Boksuni. But unlike Sampari and Chunsami, who were into their natural habitat along with Jedori, Boksuni was transferred to Seoul Grand Park for temporary housing because of her deformed rostrum and depressive tendencies.

Animal advocacy groups including the Korean Animal Welfare Association and Hot Pink Dolphins demanded that Boksuni and Taesani be released into the wild like the other dolphins, and in July 2015, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries finally set them free.

“Shortly before being released, Boksuni had calved in a floating cage near the Jeju coast, but that calf died immediately. That makes the news of Boksuni’s successful delivery very significant,” Kim Byeong-yeop said.

There had been repeated sightings of Boksuni pushing her dead calf to the surface of the water with her rostrum in a desperate attempt to keep it from sinking.

Boksuni had also given birth to one calf while doing dolphin shows at Pacific Land in June 2012, but that calf died during birth. This is Boksuni’s third delivery and her first in the wild.

“So far, the calf appears to be growing healthily,” said a member of the dolphin research team at Jeju National University.

By Nam Jong-young, staff reporter

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