Atlantis Marine Park

This park was the creation of Alan Bond, in Two Rocks, Western Australia. He had a vision of a large resort and residential area, with a hope for their to be a steady growth with tourism in the area.  The park opened sometime in 1981, and six months before the opening 7 bottlenose dolphins were caught locally and trained as performance animals.

  In 1988 three female dolphin calves were born, and due to a change in regulations this meant a larger enclosure was now needed for the dolphins to be in. This is thought to be one of the reasons for the parks closure in 1990, which was due to financial difficulties. When the park closed, there was 6 dolphins there, 3 being the dolphins born in the enclosure.

It was unknown what would happen with the dolphins but the owners agreed to release them back into the wild, but on the condition that their financial commitment to the dolphins would end, this process began in March 1991. The rehabilitation included the dolphins being in the park pools, before being moved into a sea pen in October 1991 before being fully released in January 1992. 

  Unfortunately the dolphins had difficulties once they were released and many began losing weight, due to not being used to having to get their own food, this lead to three being recaptured and being placed back into the sea pens. These dolphins were never released back into the sea, instead they moved to Underwater World which is now known as Aquarium of Western Australia. Their new home had them from 1992-1999, where they died due to poisoning.