We live in harmony. With order.
You live in turmoil. No order.
We do not actively kill each other.
You take your lives in war.
And then you decided to take ours.
You make us play the court jester,
so we can make you laugh, just so we can eat.
We do not ask you for such.
A few of you treat us well when you contain us,
trying to learn more of us while keeping us healthy.
We appreciate that. We like your contact.
But we also like your respect.
Those of us who know not the wild,
happily dwell in your confinements, without regret.
But those of us of the wild, we like you,
but we like our freedom too.
Until you choose to learn from us, in our world,
You will understand little of us.
We have learned your ways.
Now, Learn ours.
Since the beginning of life as we know it, the sea has supported our planet. From it has come the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. In short, the sea has given us life. Perhaps it's time we returned the favor. ~ Bob Talbot
And when the day comes that we can communicate intelligently with dolphins, they may introduce us to the concept of survival without aggression, and the true joy of living, which at present eludes us. In that circumstance what they have to teach us would be infinitely more valuable than anything we could offer them in exchange. ~ Horace Dobbs
It is the dolphin's birthright to swim in a straight line in the ocean as far as its heart desires. ~ Ric O'Barry
Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much. The wheel, New York, wars, and so on. While all the dolphins had ever done was much about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins always believed that they were far more intelligent than man ~ for precisely the same reason. ~ Douglas Adams
There is about as much educational benefit to be gained in studying dolphins in captivity as there would be studying mankind by only observing prisoners held in solitary confinement. ~ Jacques Cousteau
Fact: Dolphins sleep with one half of their brain plus one eye closed, then switching to the other side of the brain and the other eye closed during other parts of the day -- slowing down everything inside their bodies and moving very little.
Cows have dreams too!
Fice species of dolphin can live in fresh water, they are usually named after the river they swim in, such as the Amazon or the Ganges
Dolphin clicks are short pulses of 300 sounds per second.
All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it. ~ Samual Butler; 1912
Rape, even gang rape, is not unknown among other wild animals. But dolphins have perfected the practice. The team doing the herding is often shadowed at some distance by another. If outsiders try to steal the first team's victim, the back-up group will come to the rescue - not of the female, but of their male friends. ~ The Economist
Cetaceans seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in sexual activity. This may be generated by boredom in captivity, but observers in the wild tend to confirm it. Dolphins engage in love-play with almost every creature in sight - with mothers, brothers, fathers, daughters, cousins or aunts. There is even one record of a Bottlenose Dolphin masturbating with a herring. ~ R. Brown
It is of interest to note that, while some dolphins are reported to have learned English ~ up to fifty words used in correct context ~ no human being is reported to have learned dolphinese. ~ Dr. Carl Sagan
If dolphins drove mini cars!
No well-mannered fish goes anywhere without a good porpoise. ~ Lewis Carroll
Listen to the voice of a dolphin, and you shall learn the secret to mankinds' survival: PEACE!!! ~ Mallory Watson
Dolphins carry their young inside their womb and gestation is about 12 months for a bottlenose. The baby emerges tail first, and will suckle from its mother for up to 4 years ~ a calf may stop suckling sooner depending on circumstances.
To breathe when they are asleep, female dolphins lie on the water's surface with their blowholes exposed to the air; males sleep just below the surface and rise to breathe periodically as a reflex action.
"In the water, whales have become the dominant species,
Without killing their own kind.
In the water, whales have become the dominant species,
Though they allow the resources they use to renew themselves.
In the water, whales have become the dominant species,
Though they acknowledge minds other than their own.
In the water, whales have become the dominant species,
Without allowing their population to reach plague proportions.
In the water, the whale is the dominant species,
An extra-terrestrial, who has already landed..." ~ Heathcote Williams
"When dolphins speak They use only vowels, and just faint hints of consonants, But recognizable:
'Hello. How are you.
One-two-three-four-five...six-seven.
Yes.No.
A.E.I.O.U.
My name is Elvar.
My name is Peter.
My name is Bobo. Clown.
It is six o'clock.
Trick. Squirt water. Trick. More water...Bye...bye bye.' "~ Heathcote Williams
There are currently 8 species of dolphins on the endangered species list. Two species of dolphins number fewer then 500 in the world. If nothing is done to help protect and preserve these species of dolphins, they may be gone forever.
Diviner than the dolphin is nothing yet created. ~ Oppian, Halieutica
To the dolphin alone, nature has given that which the best philosophers seek: Friendship for no advantage. Though it has no need of help from any man, it is a genial friend to all and has helped mankind. ~ Plutarch
Dolphins have their own language that they use to communicate with each other and with humans. Even though we do not understand their words, sounds, noises, and clicks exactly, we do know that they are communicating feelings, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors just as humans do.
Not caged by union rules
Unfettered by sales targets
No trains or planes to catch
Your time is set by the flow
Of the sea's tides
And the moon's glow
~ Horace Dobbs
How sharper than a sermon's truth it must have been for many human beings when they learned that bottle-nosed Dolphins may, in time, succeed battle-poised Man as the master species on earth. This prophecy is implicit in the findings of those scientists who have been studying, and interviewing, dolphins in laboratories. It neither alarms nor surprises me that Nature, whose patience with our self-destructive species is giving out, may have decided to make us, if not extinct, at least a secondary power among the mammals of this improbable planet... As far back as 1933 I observed a school of dolphins (their schools increase as ours decline) romping, as we carelessly call it, alongside a cruise ship in the South Atlantic, and something told me that here was a creature, all gaiety, charm, and intelligence, that might one day come out of the boundless deep and show us how a world can be run by creatures dedicated not to the destruction of their species but to its preservation. ~ James Thurber
I want to swim as deep as Dolphin
Into Ocean's grey currents
to see as they see
to feel Water under my fins
to dive so deep Light is only a memory
to know Oceans waves.
Today the dolphins came to play
I watched them jump for joy
It seemed just then, they were wise old men
and I, a foolish boy
Atop the mighty waves they danced
to the rhythms of the moon
in harmony with the song of the sea
they played in perfect tune
Behind me fast cars rushed on by
towards some other time and place
What wonders do we never see
that stare us daily in the face?
Today the dolphins came to play
I never felt so small
and yet so grand, bare feet in the sand
a vital part of the all.
Dolphins diving here and there,
Over the waves without a care.
Lazily gliding through the sea,
Perfect animals so gentle and free.
Happily they talk and play,
In the water they frolic all day.
Naturally beautiful and smart,
Surely a wonderful work of art
You give us images of ecstasy
That we lock away
Behind the doors of memory
For quiet moments
when released from our possessions
We dream of a freedom like yours . ~ Horace Dobbs
Pushing through green waters
Symbol of joy
You leap from the depths
To touch the sky
Scattering spray
Like handfuls of jewels. ~ Horace Dobbs
Dolphin societies are extraordinarily complex, and up to ten generations coexist at one time. If that were the case with man, Leonardo DaVinci, Faraday, and Eistein would still be alive. Could not the dolphin's brain contain an amount of information in volume to the thousands of tons of books in our librairies? ~ Hubert Humphrey
Even lonely, they're friendly,
teaching trainers, performing hoop-jump,
nose-balancing acts.
Easy to believe this animal spends its life at play.
That something dies
when ocean whispers behind the wall.
I would like to be a dolphin under the sea!
Oh! How happy I would be.
Jumping threw the waves and dancing with the sand.
While listening to a crustacean band.
Laughing with my friends under a ship.
Oh! That would certainly be hip.
I would like to be a dolphin under the sea!
Oh! How happy I would be.
"Have we studied, long enough, this genocidial thing?"
"Must we live in tainted water"?, asked the Dolphin King.
We have shown it care and guidance at a cost so dear.
And they all replied, "Dear King, they're ruled by greed and fear!"
The Dolphin King said, "Yes, I know! And lately some have tried
To understand our kind, to communicate their pride.
But others net our children and by some, released. Too late.
Soon we will be no more! Will race extinction be our fate?
The crowd replied, "Their minds are small. They're learning every day.
Though slow and clumsy like a child, a few have come to play.
They know we are intelligent. We see it in their eyes.
"But will it last and overcome their greed." The King replies.
We have to be so careful when the creature-man comes near.
They do not recognize their plight. Their fate remains unclear.
I can't decide to leave or stay! Dear friends, what shall we do?
And in their wisdom, all the Dolphins said, "Let's see it through!"
It's though we have a lot of pets, and dangerous they be.
So we must strive the harder and must teach them how to see
This Home that spins amoung the stars is all they have, for now.
The Dolphin King replied, "You're right!" "We must succeed, somehow."
You may all go back to your task of teaching creature-man.
I'm tired of talking and would like to race the sun again.
Then turning, he was off with lightening speed; a blur of grey.
The King, in wisdom, love, and kindness went back to his play..
I have used here paintings by Jim Warren, John Pitres, Andrew Annenberg and work by others whose name I have never known.
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