Twenty Years with the Dolphins Page #3

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to decipher what was going on.

Finally, my eyes focused

on what was happening.

At the core of the formation was

a single, very pregnant female.

She was surrounded by her pod

mates pressing against her,

forming a barrier of dolphin

bodies against any intruder.

It's my belief that we were witnessing

a gathering of dolphins to protect

a female about to give birth.

I never saw the birth itself

because several dolphins began

showing signs of displeasure.

They swam quickly past us, giving

a series of barks, which we know to be

a sign of anger or aggression.

We took the hint and

headed back to the boat.

As I waited to be picked up,

a large male dolphin swam over.

At first, I thought we were

in for another warning.

But then I saw this was an

old friend, Notchy, a dolphin

I hadn't seen for 10 years.

Here is a shot of Notchy in 1989,

clearly showing his injury.

I believe it was probably

from a boat propeller.

I was delighted to see

he was still alive.

The spine of a dolphin

is deeper within its body

than in a human.

But I think this dolphin

had a very close call.

Notchy was curious and

playful from the first.

He had a companion

who was a little older.

And the two of them played

together, and with us,

for more than an hour

during the summer of 1989.

I tried to join their games

by scratching

along the bottom with my hand.

This brought the two of them

rocketing back at me.

Then they'd shoot off, and

grab a bite from the sand,

and race back to play.

And I remember that when

time came for him to leave,

obeying some call from the

senior members of the pod,

Notchy hesitated,

looking back for an instant.

Then he was gone.

And I would not meet him again

for more than a decade.

But as I returned to the boat

that morning during the summer

of 2000, the spectacular

gathering of dolphins

seemed to increase.

Although they'd ignored us

and the dolphin communicator

while we were in the water,

now there were some 70 dolphins

clustered around the bow.

From the surface,

the core group of dolphins

looked almost like a single organism.

And that may have been their intent,

to present a predator with

a formidable looking defense.

This is the most relaxed experience I

think I've ever had with them.

And it is clearly the largest group

of spotted dolphins

certainly that we've ever had up here.

It's my belief that the entire dolphin

population of the White Sand Ridge

had gathered for a birth.

They had come onto the white sand,

away from the Gulf Stream, where they

knew they'd be safe from

sharks during the most

vulnerable moment in the life of

a mother and her newborn calf.

We ran with the dolphins

at low speed until 4:00 PM.

We'd had 70 dolphins for eight hours,

and then the ocean was empty.

The dolphins disappeared in an instant,

and we did not see them again.

After the first eight years

out on the banks,

Hardy and Julia had

identified a large number

of individual dolphins and were plotting

their social relationships.

Year after year,

the catalog of dolphin IDs grew.

Though at first, the movement

of the dolphin school

appeared chaotic, gradually

patterns began to emerge.

Although spotted dolphins

may occasionally

gather in large groups, they normally

are found in subgroups.

Females and young calves

form one of these.

Young males play together

until they're ready to join

the senior male coalitions.

Young females tend to stay

with the mothers and calves,

helping out as babysitters.

The affection dolphins have

for one another was clear to us

from the start.

They're constantly touching each other,

rubbing their pectoral fins

and flukes together.

Affection, even love, is

a form of social bonding

that ensures these dolphins

will take care of one another.

Because they live in a world where

sharks are always present,

dolphins are vulnerable.

And any dolphin separated from

the pod is in severe danger.

I was with a group of

mothers and calves one day

when an aggressive shark

swam down over the sand.

The dolphins instantly moved

into a protective formation,

with the adult females on the outside.

Little ones, who had been

playing on the perimeter,

were rounded up by nearby adults.

A male, becoming aware of

the threat, gave an alarm whistle.

Other males raced to join him.

And they united into a large

force, moving rapidly to defend

the females and calves.

One look at this formidable

coalition and the shark

skulked back into the blue.

Back in 1981, the team first

began working with a primitive version

of a computerized dolphin

communication system,

hoping to attract the dolphins

to the cameras,

and to see if some kind of

dialogue could be established.

This early design recognized

that dolphins vocalize

at very high frequencies,

allowing transmission

of huge amounts of information in very

short periods, something

like a computer modem.

Sound engineer Steve Gonyea

developed two systems

to deal with this, one, a tape

recorder, that would allow them

to capture the sounds of

the dolphins in real time,

but to hear the sounds at reduced speeds

within the human hearing range.

The second device, a synthesizer, Steve

had programmed with real dolphin

calls from the previous year.

Didi's signature whistle,

for instance, which he could

then play back to the dolphins.

How about if we assign one call to be,

like, my identity sound.

And I'll play that call

whenever I operate the box.

And we'll make one call your identity.

They had no idea

how the dolphins would respond

to the synthesizer, if at all.

When we first entered the water,

we felt a little foolish, standing

on the bottom with these

two plastic boxes in our hands.

But the dolphins'

response was immediate.

Chopper and Didi, with

some of their buddies,

came over to take a puzzled look.

This was the first time we'd ever

made sounds in the

dolphins' frequency range.

We knew something was happening when

a dolphin called Big Eye

began to descend

tail first from the surface.

This was a very deliberate

act, and not a normal way

for a dolphin to swim.

But it was the way Steve and

I had descended, feet first.

Steve let me have the headphones so I

could hear the dolphins with

the frequency stepped down.

The results were amazing.

Suddenly, the dolphins'

world came alive.

It was as though I had been watching

a symphony orchestra

playing, but only now

could hear the music.

Big Eye circled over to

cameraman Howard Hall, who

was lying on the sand filming.

To our absolute amazement,

this senior male

lay down on the sand,

right in front of him,

mimicking Howard's position.

The entire time, Big Eye was

imitating the sounds we were

making with the call generator.

He then swam back to Steve and me, who

were standing on the bottom.

And with great effort, began to use

his pectoral fins to bring himself

into a vertical position on the sand.

We were astounded by his actions.

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