In troubled waters
NIMI KURIAN
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It is time to wake up and protect the dolphin before it disappears from our oceans. 2007 has been declared the Year of the Dolphin.
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With a strong initiative we can make a difference to save these fascinating marine mammals from the brink of extinction.
PHOTO: AFP
DOLPHIN 2007: Need all the protection they can get.
You would think that the easiest thing in the world to achieve was a clean, quiet ocean. Ask the dolphins. More and more their homes are turning to be living hells, making their very survival impossible. It is indeed a dire situation causing the UN Convention on Migratory Species, together with its specialised agreements on dolphin conservation — The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS) and The Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS) and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) to declare 2007 as the Year of the Dolphin. The need of the hour is to protect the dolphin. How can this be achieved? Well, through education and creating awareness about the species. And of course decision makers and the local community also should be involved so that greater care is taken in protecting the environment and the dolphin.
Intelligent and friendly
His Serene Highness (H.S.H.) Prince Albert II of Monaco, the patron for the Year of the Dolphin, says, "The Year of the Dolphin gives me the opportunity to renew my firm commitment towards protecting marine biodiversity. With this strong initiative we can make a difference to save these fascinating marine mammals from the brink of extinction."
It is believed that these aquatic mammals evolved more than 10 million years ago. There are some 40 species and they are all carnivores, their diet consisting mainly of fish and squid. They are found in the shallow seas of the continental shelves, and move around in groups called schools or pods. Dolphins are considered the most intelligent animals and have been used for military purposes, like in the detection of undersea mines. They have also been used to rescue trapped divers.
Stories of dolphins saving humans at sea are many. Sailors tell stories of how dolphins have guided their ships from treacherous waters.
What threatens their existence today is marine pollution, depletion in their prey and hunting. Often they get entangled in fishing nets once again pushing them to the brink.
Dolphin legends
In about 70 AD the Roman naturalist Pliny `The Elder' wrote, in Natural History, about a boy who was befriended by a wild dolphin who used to carry him across the water to school every day. One night, the boy died. When the dolphin realised that the boy would never return, his empathy was so deep that he himself died of sorrow. Pliny writes: "I should have been ashamed to tell this story were it not that it has been written about already by Maecenas and Fabianus and Flavious Alfius and many other notable people!"
More recently, off the Coast of Grand Bahama Island, Yvonne Bliss fell overboard. After many hours of being out of sight of land, exhausted from trying to swim in heavy currents, she became terrified when she saw a large animal swimming close to her. She assumed it was a shark .After a time she realised it was actually a dolphin and it had "pushed" her out of the strong currents into a tidal stream that carried her towards the shore.
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