Dolphin Blue: Soar Again, Fuji
July 2007 •Japanese
Kazuya Uemura is an American veterinarian who has just arrived at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. Uemura was busy working as a keeper, even though he was a veterinarian, based on the director's policy of learning about dolphins while doing work as a zookeeper, such as feeding and cleaning the pool. At the end of his busy summer vacation and his work was over, something unusual happened to Fuji, the mother dolphin who gave birth to three children. Her tail was damaged from necrosis. Medicine couldn't help her condition, otherwise, Fuji would die. Uemura decided to amputate Fuji's tail fins. Fuji managed to survive the amputation but was unable to swim. The granddaughter of the director, Michiru, sees Fuji could no longer swim and says to Uemura, "A dolphin that can't swim is not a dolphin." Uemura stood up: "I want Fuji to swim again, I want Fuji to soar in the air." The world's first dolphin tail recovery project has begun.
