‘World’s loneliest dolphin’ dies alone in tiny tank at abandoned theme park | World | News

Honey, a female bottlenose dolphin, passed away in solitude in a small pool at the Marine Park Aquarium in Choshi, Japan, where she had spent the last two years of her life. Her death on 29 March 2020 was confirmed by the US-based charity, the Dolphin Project.

The unfortunate dolphin was captured in Taiji’s brutal drive hunts in 2005 before spending the rest of her life in captivity. Honey first made international headlines when it was revealed that she had been abandoned at the aquarium, along with 46 penguins, in January 2018.

The facility closed due to a drop in visitors following the 2011 earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear crisis. While an employee continued to feed the animals, they were otherwise left to fend for themselves in unsanitary conditions.

Honey had lived a troubling existence. She was taken from the wild in 2005, and the world became familiar with her story after it was featured in the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove,

The Dolphin Project attempted to intervene, reaching out to rescue Honey and the other abandoned animals. They even explored purchasing her from the new owners of the facility in an effort to offer Honey a peaceful retirement.

However, by March 2020, it became clear that her health had deteriorated beyond recovery.

In her final years, Honey was pictured floating in a small, filthy pool within an abandoned facility. Footage and images of her and other neglected animals, including dust-covered penguins, quickly went viral on social media, prompting calls for their rescue under hashtags such as #SaveHoney.

Despite the charity’s efforts and widespread public outcry, Honey’s life ended in isolation, raising questions about the treatment of marine animals in captivity.

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised for several dolphins trapped in dirty tanks after their marine park’s company went bankrupt.

The bottlenose dolphins, still performing tricks for crowds, are forced to endure human interactions with customers who pay $130 (£97) to swim in their enclosure and hug them.

Campaigners now fear the dolphins are going blind after footage showed them swimming with their eyes “jammed shut” in the murky water.

Green algae has begun growing in the crumbling tanks at Gulf World in Florida’s Panama City Beach, with inspectors from the US Department of Agriculture scraping nearly six inches of algae off one pool’s step.

Four dolphins have died under mysterious circumstances within six months, including one in March that landed on its head in front of children in a shallow part of the pool.