Part 2

But Douglas was undisillusionedly wrong, and the dolphins are right, and so is the “mankind” that believed in their friendliness. Though pleased to see the dolphins play, it is to be regretted that Douglas did not mind his compass and his way, for:

Had the curteous Dolphins heard One note of his, they would have dar’d To quit the waters, to enjoy In banishment such melody. John Hall, 1646.

In order to avoid any imputation that I may be attempting to play Euhemerus[2] to the dolphin’s tale, the facts may be allowed to speak for themselves—always remembering that facts never speak for themselves, but are at the mercy of their interpreters. All, then, that I am concerned to show here, by citing the contemporary evidence, is that, in essence, the so-called myths of the ancients were based on solid facts of observation and not, as has hitherto been supposed, on the imaginings of mythmakers.

Let us begin with a brief account of the most recent and most thoroughly documented story of a free-dwelling dolphin’s social interaction with human beings. This is the story of Opo, a female _Tursiops_ that made its appearance early in 1955 at Opononi, a small township just outside the mouth of Hokianga Harbour, on the western side of the North Island of New Zealand. From allowing itself at first to be rubbed with an oar or mop carried on the fishermen’s launches, it began to glide in near the beach among the bathers. The cheerful _putt-putt_ of a motor-launch or of an outboard motor was an irresistible attraction for Opo, and she would follow the boat like a dog, playing or cruising round it. If she had an urge to wander, starting up the motor would invariably draw her back again. Mr. Piwai Toi, a Maori farmer, who was the first to observe Opo, writes, “She was really and truly a children’s playmate. Although she played with grownups she was really at her charming best with a crowd of children swimming and wading. I have seen her swimming amongst children almost begging to be petted. She had an uncanny knack of finding out those who were gentle among her young admirers, and keeping away from the rougher elements. If they were all gentle then she would give of her best.” (Antony Alpers, _The Dolphin_, pp. 228-229.)

The child the dolphin favored was a thirteen-year-old girl named Jill Baker. At fourteen Jill wrote the following account of her experience with Opo:

“I think why the dolphin became so friendly with me was because I was always gentle with her and never rushed at her as so many bathers did. No matter how many went in the water playing with her, as soon as I went in for a swim she would leave all the others and go off side-by-side with me. I remember on one occasion I went for a swim much further up the beach than where she was playing, and I was only in the water a short while when she bobbed up just in front of my face and gave me such a fright. On several other occasions when I was standing in the water with my legs apart she would go between them and pick me up and carry me a short distance before dropping me again. At first she didn’t like the feel of my hands and would dart away, but after a while when she realized I would not harm her she would come up to me to be rubbed and patted. She would quite often let me put little children on her back for a moment or two.” (In Antony Alpers, _The Dolphin_, p. 229.)

Opo’s choice of the gentle Jill Baker for the rides which she gave this thirteen-year-old, suggests not only a sensitive discrimination of the qualities of human beings, but also that the reports of similar incidents which have come down to us from antiquity were based on similarly observed events. The one element in these stories which seemed most difficult to accept, and which is so often represented in ancient art, the boy riding on the back of a dolphin, is now removed from the realm of fancy and placed squarely in the realm of fact. It has been corroborated and sustained.

Mr. Antony Alpers in his book on the dolphin, and especially that part devoted to the eyewitness accounts of Opo’s behavior, goes far toward establishing the fact of the dolphin’s remarkable capacity for rapport with human beings. But for those striking facts I must recommend you to Mr. Alper’s charming book.

The dolphin’s extraordinary interest in and, what we will I am sure not be far wrong in interpreting as, concern for human beings, is dramatically told by George Llano in his report _Airmen Against the Sea_. This report, written on survival at sea during the Second World War, records the experience of six American airmen, shot down over the Pacific, who found themselves in a seven-man raft being pushed by a porpoise toward land. Unfortunately the land was an island held by the Japanese. The friendly porpoise must have been surprised and hurt when he found himself being dissuaded from his pushing by being beaten off with the oars of the airmen.

Dr. Llano also reports that “Most observers noted that when porpoises appeared sharks disappeared, and they frequently refer to the ‘welcome’ appearance of porpoises, whose company they preferred to that of sharks.” This confirms all earlier reports that sharks are no match for the dolphin kind.

Dolphins have been known to push a mattress quite empty of human beings for considerable distances at sea. Possibly it is merely the pushing that interests them, and not the saving of any human beings that might be atop of them.

Is there any evidence that dolphins save drowning swimmers? There is.

In 1945 the wife of a well-known trial attorney residing in Florida was saved from drowning by a dolphin.[3] This woman had stepped into a sea with a strong undertow and was immediately dragged under. Just before losing consciousness, she remembers hoping that someone would push her ashore. “With that, someone gave me a tremendous shove, and I landed on the beach, face down, too exhausted to turn over ... when I did, no one was near, but in the water almost eighteen feet out a porpoise was leaping around, and a few feet beyond him another large fish was also leaping.”

In this case the porpoise was almost certainly a dolphin and the large fish a fishtail shark. A man who had observed the events from the other side of a fence told the rescued woman that this was the second time he had seen a drowning person saved by a “porpoise.”

More recently, on the night of February 29, 1960, Mrs. Yvonne M. Bliss of Stuart fell from a boat off the east coast of Grand Bahama Island in the West Indies.[4] “After floating, swimming, shedding more clothing for what seemed an eternity, I saw a form in the water to the left of me.... It touched the side of my hip and, thinking it must be a shark, I moved over to the right to try to get away from it.... This change in my position was to my advantage as heretofore I was bucking a cross tide and the waves would wash over my head and I would swallow a great deal of water. This sea animal which I knew by this time must be a porpoise had guided me so that I was being carried with the tide.

“After another eternity and being thankful that my friend was keeping away the sharks and barracuda for which these waters are famous, the porpoise moved back of me and came around to my right side. I moved over to give room to my companion and later knew that had not the porpoise done this, I would have been going downstream to deeper and faster moving waters. The porpoise had guided me to the section where the water was the most shallow.

“Shortly I touched what felt like fish netting to my feet. It was seaweed and under that the glorious and most welcome bottom.

“As I turned toward shore, stumbling, losing balance, and saying a prayer of thanks, my rescuer took off like a streak on down the channel.”

The reader must be left to make what he can of such occurrences. Dr. George G. Goodwin of the American Museum of Natural History doubts the intention of dolphins to save drowning persons.[5] “Anything floating,” he writes, “on or near the surface of the sea will attract his attention. His first action on approaching the object of his curiosity is to roll under it. In doing so, something partly submerged, like the body of a drowning person, is nudged to the surface of the water. The sea does its part and automatically drives floating objects toward the beach.” This may well be so in some cases, but it is an explanation which does not fit the incidents described by Mrs. Bliss, in which she was not pushed but guided. Occam’s razor should not be too bluntly applied.

The cooperativeness of dolphins with fishermen in various parts of the world has gone on for several thousand years without its significance having registered much upon the consciousness of the rest of the world—including the learned and the scientific.

In the Mediterranean from the earliest days, as recorded by Aelian in his _On the Characteristics of Animals_, VI, 15, to the present day, torchlight fishing with the aid of dolphins has been a traditional way of fishing. This has been described by Nicholas Apostolides in his book _La Pêche en Grèce_, who tells how fishermen of the Sporades catch their garfish “in the darkest nights of the month of October” by methods very similar to those described by Aelian. Briefly, the fish attracted by the fishermen’s flares begin to collect, whereupon the dolphins appear and drive them into the fishermen’s nets.

Similar methods of fishing were practiced in the Antipodes, off the New Zealand and Queensland coasts. The aborigines of Moreton Bay, Queensland, used to catch mullet with the aid of dolphins, at a place appropriately enough called Amity Point. The aborigines recognized individual dolphins and called them by name. With their nets ready on the beach the aborigines waited for a shoal of fish to appear, whereupon they would run down and make a peculiar splashing in the water with their spears, and the dolphins on the outside of the shoal would drive the fish towards the nets for the aborigines to catch. Fairholme, who described these events in 1856, writes, “For my part I cannot doubt that the understanding is real, and that the natives know these porpoises [actually the dolphin _Tursiops catalania_], and that strange porpoises would not show so little fear of the natives. The oldest men of the tribe say that the same kind of fishing has always been carried on as long as they can remember. Porpoises abound in the bay, but in no other part do the natives fish with their assistance.”

The Irrawaddy River dolphin is also an assistant-fisherman. John Anderson reports that “The fishermen believe that the dolphin purposely draws fish to their nets, and each fishing village has its particular guardian dolphin which receives a name common to all the fellows of his school; and it is this superstition which makes it so difficult to obtain specimens of this Cetacean. Colonel Sladen has told me that suits are not infrequently brought into the native courts to recover a share in the capture of fish, in which a plaintiff’s dolphin has been held to fill the nets of rival fishermen.” (John Anderson, _Account of the Zoological Results of Two Expeditions to Western Yunnan_.)

The Pink-Bellied river dolphin (_Inia geoffrensis_) of the Trapajós, a tributary of the Amazon, also helps its human friends with fishing. Dr. F. Bruce Lamb[6] says that this dolphin, locally known as the _boto_, “is reported to have saved the lives of helpless persons whose boats have capsized, by pushing them ashore. None of the dreaded flesh-eating _piranhas_ appear when a porpoise is present, for they themselves would be eaten.” And he goes on to give an eye-witness account of fishing with the aid of a trained dolphin. “My curiosity was aroused,” he writes, “by the paddler, who began tapping on the side of the canoe with his paddle between strokes and whistling a peculiar call. Asking Rymundo about this, he startled me by casually remarking that they were calling their _boto_, their porpoise.... As we approached the fishing grounds near the riverbank, Rymundo lit his carbide miner’s lamp, adjusted the reflector, chose his first harpoon, and stood up in the bow ready for action. Almost immediately on the offshore side of the canoe about 50 feet from us we heard a porpoise come up to blow and take in fresh air.” The porpoise then chased the fish toward the canoe and Rymundo harpooned them with ease.

Many ancient writers have referred to the brilliancy of the changeful colors when the dolphin is dying. Byron makes reference to this in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,”

“Parting day Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues With a new colour as it gasps away; The last still loveliest, till ’tis gone, and all is gray.”

Here is a peculiar confusion, for this is not the mammalian dolphin of which we have been speaking, but the swift piscivorous oceanic fish _Coryphaena hippurus_, the dolphin of sailors. It is blue with deeper spots, and gleaming with gold. It is, indeed, famous for the beauty of its changing colors when dying. The mammalian dolphin exhibits no such spectacular color changes when dying.

Happily, it is not with dying dolphins or with _their_ changing colors that we are concerned here, but rather with ours, the changing color of the complexion of our once too sophisticated beliefs. Beliefs which, in their own way, were very much more in the nature of myths than the ancient ones which we wrote off a little too disdainfully as such. The history of the dolphin constitutes an illuminating example of the eclipse of knowledge once possessed by the learned, but which was virtually completely relegated to the outermost fringes of mythology during the last eighteen hundred years. Perhaps there is a moral to be drawn here. If so, I shall leave it to others to draw. But now that scientific interest in the dolphin has been aroused we are entering into a new era of delphinology, and with the confirmation of so many of the observations of the ancients already made, we may look forward with confidence to others. Dolphins have large brains; possibly they will some day be able to teach us what brains are really for.

_Appendix A_ A Note for Bibliophiles

It was an ancient belief, as Camerarius tells us, that “when tempests arise, and seamen cast their anchor, the dolphin, from its love to man, twines itself round it, so that it may more safely lay hold of the ground.” I know of no verifying evidence for this statement, but should not be surprised to find some element of truth in it. The dolphin twined about an anchor is the device which Aldus Manutius (1450-1515) adopted for his Aldine Press, which began publication in 1494. This device was later adapted to his own use by the English publisher William Pickering (1796-1854).

The representation of the dolphin twined about the anchor refers to no maritime supremacy of that creature, but rather to its kindly regard for man. The following poem in George Wither’s _A Collection of Emblemes_ (1635), throws some additional light on the meaning of the emblem.

If Safely, thou desire to goe, Bee nor too Swift, nor overslow. [Emblem] [Dolphin and Anchor] Illvstr.X. Book 2.

Our Elders, when their meaning was to shew A native-speedinesse (in Emblem wise) The picture of a Dolphin-Fish they drew; Which, through the waters, with great swiftnesse, flies. An Anchor, they did figure, to declare Hope, stayednesse, or a grave-deliberation: And therefore when those two, united are, Its giveth us a two-fold Intimation. For, as the Dolphin putteth us in minde, That in the Courses, which we have to make, Wee should not be, to slothfulnesse enclin’d; But, swift to follow what we undertake: So, by an Anchor added thereunto, Inform’d wee are, that, to maintaine our speed, Hope, must bee joyn’d therewith (in all we doe) If wee will undiscouraged proceed. It sheweth (also) that, our speedinesse, Must have some staydnesse; lest, when wee suppose To prosecute our aymes with good successe, Wee may, by Rashnesse, good endeavors lose. They worke, with most securitie, that know The Times, and best Occasions of delay; When, likewise, to be neither swift, nor slow; And, when to practise all the speed, they may. For, whether calme, or stormie-passages, (Through this life’s Ocean) shall their Bark attend; This double Vertue, will procure their ease: And, them, in all necessities, befriend. By Speedinesse, our works are timely wrought; By Staydnesse, they, to passe are, safely, brought. _From_ A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne, by George Wither. London, 1635. Book 2, p. 72.

_Appendix B_ Dolphins and Their Distribution

Order: CETACEA Suborder: ODONTOCETI Family: Delphinidae Subfamily: Delphininae Genus: _Delphinus_ Subfamily: Delphinapterinae Genus: _Monodon_ Genus: _Delphinapterus_

The Suborder Odontoceti of the Order Cetacea consists of the toothed whales, in contrast to the toothless whalebone or baleen whales, the Mystacoceti. The whales are large dolphins or one may say that dolphins are small whales. The members of the Odontoceti are the Dolphin, Freshwater Dolphin, Porpoise, Sperm Whale or Cachalot, Lesser Sperm Whale, Bottle-Nose Whale, Narwhal or Sea-Unicorn, White Whale, Pilot Whale or Black-Fish, Killer Whale or Grampus.

_Delphinus delphis_: The Common Dolphin. It is easily recognized by its well-defined narrow beak and distinctive coloration, being darker above than below. There is a narrow beak, which is sharply marked off from the low reclining forehead by a V-shaped groove. A length of up to 8½ feet has been recorded. Range of distribution is very wide. May be met in any temperate or warm sea throughout the world, and occurs at times in vast schools.

_Delphinus roseiventris_: The Red-Bellied Dolphin. Moluccas and Torres Straits, Australia; 3 feet 10 inches.

_Prodelphinus attenuatus_: Tropical and sub-tropical parts of Atlantic Ocean; 6 feet.

_P. plagiodon_: Atlantic coast of North America from Cape Hatteras, Gulf of Mexico; 7 feet.

_P. froenatus_: The Bridled Dolphin. Atlantic and Indian Oceans; about 6 feet.

_P. malayanus_: East Indies; more than 6 feet.

_P. coeruleoalbus_: South America, near mouth of River Plate; about 4 feet.

_P. euphrosyne_: Atlantic Ocean to South Africa; about 8 feet.

Genus _Tursiops_

_T. truncatus_: The Bottle-Nosed Dolphin. Has a short well-defined snout 2 or 3 inches long. There is a prominent fin in the middle of the back. Reaches a length of 11 to 12 feet. Has a very wide range. Commonest along the Atlantic coast of America from Maine to Florida. Found in Bay of Biscay, in the Mediterranean Sea, and in New Zealand waters.

_T. abusalam_: Red Sea; 6 feet.

_T. catalania_: Indian and Australian seas.

Genus _Steno_

_S. rostratus_: The Rough-Toothed Dolphin. Long-beaked, with roughened or furrowed teeth. Atlantic and Indian Oceans; about 8 feet.

Genus _Orcaella_

_O. brevirostris_: Irrawaddy River Dolphin. From Bay of Bengal, Vizagapatam, Singapore, and Siam (i.e., S.E. Asia).

Genus _Lissodelphis_ or _Tursio_

_Lissodelphis_: The Right Whale Dolphin. All oceans.

Genus _Grampus_

_G. griseus_: Risso’s Dolphin. North Atlantic, Mediterranean, New Zealand, and Cape of Good Hope; 12 to 13 feet.

Genus _Cephalorhynchus_

These are the Southern, mostly cold-water dolphins.

_C. heavisidei_: Heaviside’s Dolphin. Cape of Good Hope; about 4 feet.

_C. hectori_: Hector’s Dolphin. New Zealand; about 6 feet.

_C. albiventris_: White-Bellied Dolphin. A very rare form, found off the coast of South America; about 4 feet 6 inches.

_C. commersonii_: Commerson’s Dolphin; also known as the Piebald Porpoise or Le Jacobite. Southern oceans; up to 5¼ feet.

Genus _Lagenorhynchus_

Characterized by great number of vertebrae (80 to 90), great length of transverse and vertical bony processes from vertebrae, moderately pointed high back fin having concave posterior border; the beak is short.

_L. acutus_: The White-Sided Dolphin. North Atlantic; about 9 feet.

_L. australis_: Peale’s Porpoise. Cape Horn, Chile, Patagonia, Falkland Islands; over 7 feet.

_L. albirostris_: The White-Beaked Dolphin. North Atlantic; 9 to 10 feet.

_L. cruciger_: South Pacific; 5 to 6 feet.

_L. fitzroyi_: Fitzroy’s Dolphin. Southern end of South America; 5 feet 4 inches.

_L. obscurus_: Dusky Dolphin. South Africa, New Zealand, Falkland Islands; 7 feet.

Genus _Sotalia_

Concentrated in the tropical seas or rivers of South America, Africa, India, and the Far East.

_S. pallida_: Buffeo blanco. Upper Amazon; 5 feet 6 inches.

_S. fluviatalis_: Buffeo negro. Upper Amazon; 3 feet 7 inches.

_S. tucuxi_: Upper Amazon.

_S. guianensis_: N. E. coast of South America.

_S. teuszii_: Noteworthy as being the one Cetacean believed to feed exclusively on vegetable matter. Kamerun River.

_S. gadamu_: Vizagapatam; averages 7 feet; snout 6 inches.

_S. lentigiosa_: Vizagapatam.

_S. plumbea_: Malabar coast of India; about 8 feet; very long snout.

_S. borneensis_: Gulf of Siam to Sarawak in Borneo.

_S. sinesis_: Chinese White Dolphin.

The Fresh Water Dolphins.

Genus _Platanista_

_P. gangetica_: The Susu or Gangetic Dolphin; about 8 feet; snout and beak drawn into long forceps-like beak, 7 or 8 inches long; confined to River Ganges and River Indus. It is almost blind.

Genus _Inia_

_I. geoffrensis_: Amazonian Dolphin or Boutu. Upper Amazon; 7 feet; long beak.

Genus _Pontoporia_

_P. blainvillei_: La Plata Dolphin. Estuary of Rio de la Plata; about 5 feet.

Genus _Lipotes_

_L. vexillifer_: Chinese River Dolphin. Ting Ling Lake, 600 miles up the Yang-tse River; 7 feet 6 inches; slightly upcurved jaws.

The Porpoise

The small beakless Delphinidae, which have a triangular dorsal fin and spade-shaped teeth, black above and white below; travels in large schools. The word “porpoise” is derived from the French _porc-poisson_, “pig-fish.” Never larger than 6 feet.

Genus _Phocaena_

_P. phocaena_: The Common Porpoise. Chiefly North Atlantic and North Pacific; never larger than 6 feet.

_P. spinipinnis_: Burmeister’s Porpoise. Rare. La Plata round Horn to Peru.

_P. dalli_: Dall’s Harbor Porpoise. Very rare. Alaska; less than 5 feet.

_P. truei_: True’s Porpoise. Japan; less than 5 feet.

_P. dioprica_: River Plate to South Georgia.

Genus _Neomeris_

_N. phocaenoides_: Finless Black Porpoise. Cape of Good Hope to Japan.

Genus _Lissodelphis_

_L. peronii_: New Zealand and Tasmania; about 6 feet.

_L. brealis_: North Pacific; about 8 feet.

The Right Whale Dolphins

The Whales with Teeth

The toothed whales are big dolphins, and are on the average much smaller than the Whalebone or Baleen toothless Whales.

Family Physeteridae

Subfamily Physeterinae

Genus _Physeter_

_P. catodon_: The Sperm Whale or Cachalot. All oceans. Male may reach 60 feet, the female usually half the length of the male. This is the whale that has suffered the relentless persecution of whalers, always a coveted prize on account of its spermaceti-permeated blubber, and its excretory ambergris. The most dangerous of whales.

Subfamily Kogiinae

Genus _Kogia_

_K. breviceps_: The Pigmy or Lesser Sperm Whale. Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic oceans; about 10 feet.

Family Ziphiidae

Genus: _Hyperoödon rostratus_: The Bottle-Nose Whale. North Atlantic, Mediterranean, South Pacific, and Antarctic; 20 to 30 feet.

Genus: _Mesoplodon_: “The Cow Fish;” Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.

Genus: _Ziphius_: The Two-Toothed Whale. All oceans.

Genus: _Tasmacetus_: South Pacific.

Genus: _Berardius_: Pacific.

Family Monodontidae or Delphinapteridae

Subfamily Delphinapterinae