From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Richard (Ric) O'Barry (born c. 1939 ) was first recognized in the 1960s for capturing and training the five dolphins that were used in the well-known TV series Flipper. O'Barry made a radical transition from training dolphins in captivity to assertively combating the captivity industry soon after Kathy, one of the Flipper dolphins, died, committing suicide in his arms, according to O'Barry . In 1970 he founded the Dolphin Project, a group that aims to educate the public about captivity and, where feasible, free captive dolphins . He was featured in the Academy Award-winning film, The Cove (2009), which used covert techniques to expose the yearly dolphin drive hunting that goes on in Taiji, Japan.