Jojo, Jory and Danny just swam away, without looking back!

The team, who spent almost two decades rescuing dolphins in the United States, said their experience in Bahrain was extremely different.

“Rather than facing our normal challenges of harsh weather and tides to rescue dolphins, we faced a completely different threat—humans intent on exploiting three endangered Indian Ocean humpback dolphins for financial gain,” IFAW reveals.

Brian Sharp, the Director of Marine Mammal Rescue & Research, says they took the mission and assembled a team as requested by SCE.

“Our plan was to safely restrain the dolphins, conduct health examinations, carefully transport them to a boat, and release them back to the waters where they came from.

For months prior to the release, we worked with one of our partners, Tails Veterinary Centre in Bahrain, to conduct the necessary tests and coordinated with SCE and the Coast Guard to identify release sites.”

IFAW report says it took them several days to restrain each dolphin safely and conduct a health examination.

“We attached temporary satellite tags (thanks to a contribution from the Dutch Postcode Lottery) to the dolphins before releasing them back to the sea.”

The day of release, IFAW say, was unusually cloudy and raining, which they say worked in their favour.

The rain helped to keep the dolphins cool and protect their skins from sunlight while they were out of water during transportation.

The concerns, IFAW says, were they - Jojo, Jory and Danny- could adapt to life in the wild. “We were worried Jojo, Jory, and Danny had become too habituated and would reach out to people on boats.”

However, fears, sharp say, washed away as the dolphins immediately dove after release and quickly swam away without looking back.

He, however, says that the mission is not yet over.

“These dolphins will encounter challenges as they readjust back to their natural environment after spending over a year in illegal captivity.”