Flipper will flip for this flophouse.
A British firm plans to open the world’s first sanctuary for captive dolphins that once entertained crowds in marine amusement parks and aquariums.
Merlin Entertainments, which operates the London Eye, wants to create the porpoise hotel in a Mediterranean bay, probably in Greece, using a network of underwater fences and nets.
The seabed of the sanctuary would be equipped with 3-D cameras so visitors on shore could see what the dolphins were doing without interfering with them.
“We do not want to keep these dolphins in captivity, but we cannot release them into the wild because they can no longer provide for themselves,” said Rob Hicks, Merlin’s marine biologist.
Housing dolphins in amusement parks began in Florida in 1938. Their popularity surged during the 1960s, largely because of the 1963 “Flipper” movie and television series.