https:\/\/uploads.guim.co.uk\/2025\/07\/08\/VIDEO-2025-07-05-03-17-31.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\nOrae is one of about 130 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins living in the waters surrounding Jeju. Many display 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 operating around the island.<\/p>\n
Piloting the boat is someone known on the island as \u201cDolphin Man\u201d, AKA Jeongjoon Lee, a Korean director known for his work on documenting and helping the bottlenose population.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the dolphins cannot cut the fishing lines themselves, we decided to cut them for them,\u201d he says. \u201cIn one case, we had to cut wire from two different places, one was going in through the dolphin\u2019s face to its body, and another from around its tail where it had become tangled.\u201d<\/p>\nJeongjoon Lee, who is known on Jeju as \u2018Dolphin Man\u2019. The director has made several documentaries about the local bottlenose population. Photograph: Young Nam Kim\/KOEM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nNow, a coalition of campaigners and environmentalists want to take things further. They are hoping to have the bottlenose population recognised as a \u201clegal person\u201d, which would give them additional rights and make it easier to protect them.<\/p>\n
The idea is part of a growing movement to recognise rights in law of nonhuman species and places, and is the first attempt in Korea to give such status to an animal.<\/p>\nJeju\u2019s dolphins bear scars from fishing lines and boat propellers. Photograph: YN Kim\/KOEM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cThe idea is that if an individual or a company threatens their livelihood, then we could act on behalf of the dolphins to sue them or to take action in another way,\u201d says Miyeon Kim, who works at Marine Animal Research and Conservation (Marc), the local NGO responsible for naming the dolphins.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent organisations that work with the dolphins have been pushing for this for two years now, but it\u2019s very complicated and you have to get the Korean government, as well as the citizens of Jeju, to back such a move.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dolphins are officially listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as \u201cnear threatened\u201d rather than threatened, but the IUCN states that a lack of data on the dolphins makes it difficult to assess whether this status is accurate.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important for us to be able to identify individual dolphins \u2026 but it\u2019s also important for the islanders
Some subpopulations \u2013 there are pods throughout the Indian Ocean, south-east Asia and Australia \u2013 probably face much greater threats, it says, particularly those that live close to islands.<\/p>\n
Around Jeju these threats come from discarded fishing gear, dive and tourist boats that get too close, construction noise that affects the dolphin\u2019s use of sonar, and pollution and runoff from the island\u2019s many fish farms. The latest concern is the construction of the largest windfarm in Korea, and one of the biggest in the world, off the coast of Jeju.<\/p>\n
Kim says part of Marc\u2019s strategy is to personalise the dolphins in an effort to get local people to relate to them better. The group has produced a booklet with each dolphin\u2019s name against a picture of their dorsal fin.<\/p>\nA pod of dolphins swims past a tourist boat off Seogwipo on Jeju Island. If the vessels get too close, the animals can get badly hurt. Photograph: Newscom\/Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to be able to identify individual dolphins to be able to record scientific facts but it\u2019s also important for the islanders. People have to understand and really relate to endangered species in order for these kind of things [establishing legal personhood] to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
In April, there was a small but significant victory with the designation of a marine protected area (MPA) on the west side of the island, with the specific remit of protecting the bottlenose dolphins.<\/p>\nA spotter\u2019s guide to identify the dolphins by their dorsal fins, produced by Marine Animal Research and Conservation. Photograph: handout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAt the moment the rules that govern the area include things such as preventing arbitrary development in it \u2013 but these need to be tightened further, says Kim. \u201cThe law bans more than two recreation boats coming within a 100-metre radius of the dolphins but there are a lot of different boats in that area including fishing boats, and at the moment we can\u2019t do anything about those.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Dolphin Man, who has dedicated so much of his time to swimming with, filming and helping the dolphins, any extra help to conserve the animals cannot come soon enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I see so many boats surrounding the dolphins all watching them and chasing them around,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is good that we now have a small space to begin to protect them more, but really we need to designate that whole side of the island as a protected area in order to keep them safe for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article<\/a> by Lisa Bachelor was first published by The Guardian on 14 July 2025. Lead Image: A pod of bottlenose dolphins off Jeju. About 130 of the cetaceans live in the waters surrounding this South Korean island. Photograph: Newscom\/Alamy.<\/i><\/p>\nWildlife in catastrophic decline<\/h2>\n The 73% decline in vertebrate wildlife populations during the last 50 years (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish), is primarily driven by human activities that threaten biodiversity.<\/p>\n
Habitat Loss and Degradation<\/em> – human activities like deforestation, urbanization, and agriculture have led to the destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats, reducing the space and resources available for wildlife.<\/p>\nPollution<\/em> – air, water, and soil pollution from industrial activities, agriculture, and other sources can harm wildlife directly or indirectly by affecting their habitats and food sources.<\/p>\nClimate Change<\/em> – changing weather patterns, rising temperatures, and sea levels are disrupting ecosystems and impacting species’ ability to adapt and survive.<\/p>\nOverexploitation of Resources<\/em> – unsustainable hunting, fishing, and logging practices can lead to the depletion of populations and the loss of biodiversity.<\/p>\nInvasive Species<\/em> – the introduction of non-native species can disrupt ecosystems, compete with native species, and threaten their survival.<\/p>\n