Yes we all love to see dolphins when out boating. Its quite a thrill in fact, these majestic mammals that sometimes seemingly playfully delight in accompanying boats for a short distance, but perhaps they see it differently, perhaps a boat presents an opportunity to hone their swimming skills.
Examples of Human - Animal mutualism are well recorded. Even nearby East Coast Australian Aboriginal tribes are recorded as working with dolphins to herd large numbers of fish towards waiting nets. Both parties benefited; the dolphins had a better feed against the nets and the Aboriginal netted fish galore.
But perhaps even more importantly for Aboriginal was the reverence and deep connection with nature that the interaction bought.
So stumbling upon this article "Dolphins can't cope with human kindness"was quite a shock.
From the human point of view its a thrill to be in the water with dolphins, indeed many would describe it as something magical, but not it seems such a good idea. From the often sociable dolphin point of view it seems any benefits are dubious. The decline in dolphin numbers is huge by any standard. Again we are reminded just how sensitive, even fragile, our interrelationship with nature is.
Comments