Marmaris , Turkey ( CNN ) -- For more than a year , experts have been at work in a quiet cove on the Aegean Sea , teaching a pair of male bottlenose dolphins how to catch their own food . Every day , the team releases dozens of live fish into giant sea pen where the dolphins named Tom and Misha live . The two males then race around the pen , diving , darting and somersaulting down to depths of 45 feet in pursuit of their frightened prey . Like a proud father , trainer Jeff Foster watches from the narrow dock that encircles the pen . Not long ago , he said , Tom and Misha had no idea what to do with live fish . `` We had literally thousands of fish in the pen , and they just would n't look at them , '' Foster said . `` They had just been so used to being hand-fed in a captive situation that they did not recognize fish as a food source . '' When Foster first met the dolphins more than a year ago , he said they would only eat if humans placed dead fish directly in their mouths . If fish was thrown into the pen , it would go untouched and end up rotting at the bottom of the sea pen . Tom and Misha are part of the Back to the Blue project , an expensive , risky and somewhat controversial experiment to reintroduce captive animals into the wild . `` It would be like taking your dog and releasing it into the woods , '' Foster said . `` If you do n't prepare your dog for that , it would never happen . '' Foster , a Seattle-based expert on marine mammals , had experience with another high-profile release program that ultimately ended in failure . More than 10 years ago , he worked in Iceland as part of a multimillion-dollar effort to prepare the killer whale Keiko from the 1993 movie `` Free Willy '' for release into the wild . Less than a year after his release , Keiko died off Norway . But Foster said he believes Tom and Misha stand a much better chance of survival . `` These animals have n't been in captivity as long as Keiko , '' he said . `` Keiko was held in captivity for more than 20 years . He was held as a solitary animal for many of those years . '' The two dolphins , who are both about 12 years old , have been in captivity for five or six years , he said . `` They 've probably spent the majority of their life out in the wild , '' Foster said . `` Because we 're dealing with two males , you can develop competition feeding with them . ... They 're ideal candidates for reintroduction back into the wild . '' Tom and Misha first attracted the attention of wildlife conservation activists in 2010 . At the time , they were kept at a Turkish resort , where tourists paid to swim with the dolphins in a shallow , filthy swimming pool . `` The pool in Hisaronu , Turkey , where Tom and Misha had spent the summer months of 2010 had such a high bacterial count ... that it was a significant health hazard to the dolphins and for the unsuspecting tourists who paid to swim with them , '' Shirley Galligan , a representative of the Born Free Foundation , wrote in an e-mail to CNN . `` The water was filthy with feces and dead fish and a layer of 'sludge ' at the bottom . '' According to Born Free , a nonprofit conservation group based in the United Kingdom , the dolphins were underweight and listless and would not have survived much longer in the pool , which `` having been hastily constructed , was in danger of collapse from subsidence . '' A coalition of environmental groups successfully campaigned to rescue the animals and transport them in the back of a truck to a sea pen in the Aegean . Born Free has taken over the costly and time-consuming program to rehabilitate Tom and Misha . So far , the effort has cost $ 800,000 . Both dolphins are expected to be released within a matter of days . Born Free is keeping the exact time and location of their release secret to protect the animals from curious human visitors , excessive boat traffic and the threat of poachers . Tom and Misha 's progress will be monitored with specially designed satellite tracking devices that will be pinned to their dorsal fins . Even the sponsors of the program admit there is no guarantee of success . `` There have only been a handful of reintroduction ( programs ) with mixed results , '' Galligan wrote . `` Returning any captive wild animal to the wild is never without risk . '' One of the only successful cetacean reintroductions on record involved an orphaned female orca named Springer . Foster was a member of the team that helped rehabilitate the emaciated animal and eventually reintroduce her to a pod of related killer whales off Canada 's Pacific coast a decade ago . She has reportedly survived and thrived in those waters . Michael Moore , a marine mammal expert at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , predicted major challenges for Tom and Misha in the weeks and months ahead . `` Can they break the bond with humans , and can they create a bond with other ( wild ) dolphins ? '' he asked in a phone interview with CNN . `` The irony is that if these animals do get released into the wild , it 's a big , bad world out there , and they will have to learn how not to get entangled in fishing gear . '' According to Moore , Tom and Misha 's release will have virtually no impact on the world 's wild dolphin population , which faces an onslaught from industrial fishing nets , decimated fish stocks and polluted seas . But he and other dolphin experts say successful reintroduction could both increase biodiversity awareness in Turkey and set an important example for the multimillion-dollar captive marine mammal entertainment industry . There has been a rapid increase in the number of dolphinariums and `` swim-with-dolphin '' programs cropping up across Turkey over the last decade . `` Turkey , being a very popular and beautiful holiday destination , is sadly responding to the public demand for that 'dolphin experience ' by providing more captive dolphin facilities than anywhere else in Europe , '' Born Free 's Galligan wrote . `` Conditions in general are very poor . '' Foster said he hopes Turkey will start implementing some regulations for its marine mammal facilities `` because there really are n't standards right now . '' One fear is that Tom and Misha , who enjoy being rubbed down and handled by their trainers , could be captured by poachers hoping to sell the valuable animals to dolphin parks . Despite the risks , perhaps one of the great assets shared by the two dolphins is their adaptability . `` They are not lions and tigers , '' said Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . `` They 're fundamentally more plastic and more adaptable . '' Proof of this adaptability is on display nearly every day in the congested and polluted waters of the Bosphorus Strait , which courses through the center of Istanbul . A vibrant pod of dozens of wild bottlenose dolphins feeds here , dodging the constant traffic of oil tankers , cargo ships , ferryboats , fishing boats and yachts . Occasionally , the animals can be seen leaping and surfing off the bows of enormous tanker ships . Misha and Tom are to be released in much less hazardous waters hundreds of miles from Istanbul . But even their `` coach '' does n't know how they will fare in the days ahead . `` We just really do n't know how they 're going to respond , '' Foster said , stroking Tom 's glistening hide after the 600-pound animal obediently lept onto a floating dock at his trainers ' command . Clearly , freedom will expose these dolphins to stimulation they have not encountered in years , including waterbirds , fish and female dolphins . After a wave from his trainer 's hand , Tom slipped back into the water . He issued a high-pitched call before accepting a fish as a reward . Underwater , the vocalizations of both Tom and Misha could be distinctly heard , even by the human ear . Despite years of close interaction between humans and these highly intelligent animals , scientists have not found a way to answer one fundamental question : After years in captivity , do dolphins such as Tom and Misha want to be free ?
parks is working to release two dolphins into the wild . Two years ago , the dolphins were the main attraction at a run-down Aegean tourist park . Foster worked to help release Foster , the orca from the 1993 movie `` Conditions in general are very poor `` swim with dolphin '' Keiko in Turkey are a concern to animal welfare advocates .