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 edu...