CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Clearwater Marine Aquarium has applied for a permit from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to import 5 bottlenose dolphins from Greece, which animal activist Ric O’Barry opposes.

What You Need To Know

  • CMA has applied for a NOAA permit to import 5 bottlenose dolphins from Greece

  • The founder of Dolphin Project, Ric O'Barry, has launched a campaign to stop it 

  • O'Barry wants the dolphins in Greece moved to a sanctuary 

  • CMA said the dolphins are needed to increase the social grouping at the aquarium

“We have 30 days to try and stop this. We sprang into action immediately,” he said. “They need to go to a sanctuary, not a building in Florida.”

O’Barry, 85, is the founder of Dolphin Project, which aims to educate the public about captivity, and he was featured in the 2009 Academy Award-winning film The Cove. The animal activist started out training dolphins for the popular TV show Flipper before transitioning to advocacy.

“I’ve been doing this since Earth Day 1970,” O’Barry said. “But 10 years before that, I worked for this industry. So I’ve seen both sides of it.”

According to the NOAA permit application, CMA wants to import 5 male dolphins from Attica Zoological Park in Athina, Greece, for public display purposes. All the dolphins were born in captivity and range in age from 11 to 24.

CMA’s Chief Zoological Officer, Dr. James “Buddy” Powell, said they want the dolphins to increase the social grouping at the aquarium, which would double their current population.

“We recognize that we need additional animals there with our current animals to provide that social makeup that you would typically see in a wild population, for example,” he said. “So that, that’s kind of driving this.”

Dr. Powell said CMA is not buying the dolphins and would only be paying for their transportation, which is in line with the rescue and recovery facility’s mission.

“We’re trying to do the right thing here in terms of providing these animals for a forever home. This potentially is a very positive situation,” he said. “We want to provide the best care that we can. We’re a science-based research conservation base.”

O’Barry said flying dolphins across the Atlantic is extremely dangerous and he’d rather see the animals moved to a sanctuary.

“Greece is where we are building a couple of sanctuaries for dolphins so they can retire with some dignity and quality to their life,” he said. “They are not completely finished but they can be very quickly… We’ve done that already in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil, Haiti and Indonesia.”

The dolphins in Greece are from the United States, Cuba, Russia and the Black Sea, according to the NOAA application. The tanks at CMA can house up to 20 dolphins. Dr. Powell said they want to do whatever is best for the European dolphins.

“We’re sort of on the same team. We’re all about trying to save dolphins and provide the best care that we can,” he said. “This sanctuary, this refuge, is another potential option. It’s not really our decision.”

NOAA began accepting public comment on CMA’s permit application on Dec. 20 and will close it on Feb. 3. O’Barry said he traveled to Pinellas County this week to launch a campaign against it.

“To stop this bad idea,” he said. “Fly over Greece to get here, to go inside of a building, come on.”