We Have to Relate to ThemHope for Legal Personhood to Keep Jeju Dolphins Safe

It is a beautiful sunny day on the island of Jeju in South Korea and as the boat cuts through the water all seems calm and clear. Then they start to appear—one telltale fin and then another.

- Lisa Bachelor

It is a beautiful sunny day on the island of Jeju in South Korea and as the boat cuts through the water all seems calm and clear. Then they start to appear—one telltale fin and then another. Soon, a pod of eight or nine dolphins is moving through the sea, seemingly following the path of the boat.

But as they start to jump and dive, it becomes apparent that one dolphin is missing a fin. His name, given to him by a local environmental group, is Orae, which translates as "long," but in this context means "wishing him a long life."

Orae is one of about 130 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins living in the waters surrounding Jeju. Many display the scars of the increasingly dangerous lives they lead after coming into contact with discarded fishing gear that entangles and cuts into them, or through close encounters with boats or jetskis.

Piloting the boat is someone known on the island as "Dolphin Man," Jeongjoon Lee, a Korean film director known for his work on documenting and helping the bottlenose population.

"In one case, we had to cut wire from two different places," he says. "One was going in through the dolphin's face to its body, and another from around its tail."