JAPAN: Japanese aquarium trains disabled dolphin to use world's first artificial fin

Record ID: 343571

  • Title: JAPAN: Japanese aquarium trains disabled dolphin to use world's first artificial fin
  • Date: 17th February 2007
  • Summary: (L!2) MOTOBU TOWN, OKINAWA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 14, 2007)(REUTERS) WIDE OF DOLPHIN POOL VARIOUS OF DOLPHIN PERFORMANCE WIDE OF AUDIENCE FUJI, 37 YEAR OLD FEMALE DOLPHIN, WITH ARTIFICIAL FIN, SWIMMING AROUND CLOSE UP OF ARTIFICIAL FIN (SOUNDBITE)(Japanese) MASAYA KOAMI, DOLPHIN TRAINER, SAYING: "She caught a disease that begun gradually rotting her tail -- its some
  • Embargoed: 4th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAE772OW407NF35RERPVIIAOCTK
  • Story Text: They're elegant and graceful and seem to always be smiling, but sometimes illness strikes dolphins, robbing these creatures of their original beauty and forcing them into disability.
    Fuji was one such dolphin stricken by a mysterious life threatening illness a few years ago which had begun eating away at her fin.
    "She caught a disease that begun gradually rotting her tail -- its some sort of necrosis -- and we were forced to cut off her tail, so we amputated 75 percent of her fin in order to save her life," said her handler Masaya Koami.
    For awhile the now 37-year old Fuji survived without a fin.
    Swimming and life in general while not impossible was difficult for her at the Churaumi Aquarium, located in Japan's southern most island of Okinawa.
    But it was her lack of exercise and her weight gain that soon became a bigger problem.
    "After we cut off her tail she was able to swim around for several years but because she was not exercising enough she gained weight and from blood samples we took we realised that her cholesterol levels were too high. We then were afraid that this might trigger other diseases so we had to come up with something," Koami added.
    A friend of the handler's working at one of Japan's leading tyre makers, Bridgestone Corp, offered to make them an artificial tail fin for Fuji, the first of its kind in the world.
    Many prototypes using the latest in advanced resin-processing technology were made before the team finally came up with one that works.
    The final result was a tail fin 30 centimetres in length and 70 centimetres wide -- a bit smaller than the tail of a healthy dolphin of Fuji's size.
    The fin was made of material usually used for Formula One race car tyres. The black silicon rubber was reinforced with artificial bone made of carbon-fiber to recreate the appropriate hardness. Sponge rubber was used for parts that come directly in contact with Fuji's skin.
    Bridgestone said they spent at least 10 million yen (about 83,000 U.S. dollars) on the whole project so far which they have donated to the aquarium.
    As for Fuji, the fins frightened her at first but she soon got used to them and now she can jump like her peers and cackle happily again.
    Nevertheless, the aquarium and Bridgestone continue to research and plan for new and better fins for Fuji, also as part of their research into the swimming mechanics of these cetaceans.
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