My dolphin story

My Dolphin Story

I spent my early childhood growing up by the ocean. My father had been lured to Australia from England by the promise of warm sunny summers, white sandy beaches and the prospect of owning a boat and learning to sail. Some of my earliest memories are of The Swallow a boat Dad owned in Adelaide. Later my Dad became a lighthouse keeper and there were sail boats on the islands we lived on. Finally there was Whyalla an industrial port town where Dad had The Jabberwocky a boat named after a mythical beast from Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland. We had some great adventures sailing the Jabberwocky around the StVincent Gulf. Sometimes day trips, some times overnighters and on occasions weeks at a time traveling around the seaside towns of the Gulf. There was some education in the process: I learned to use the rudder and compass to keep the boat on course, I learned to triangulate our position on a map, I learned how to row a dingy and how to understand the weather map on TV. There were some more spiritual lessons too: an appreciation for nature and the elements and came I came to terms with my own mortality. I used to like it when the sea got rough, sailing into the big waves as they came crashing over bow; the best rollercoaster ever. My sister and I were given harnesses with ropes to shackle our selves to the boat. We were a little indignant about this but were told it was for our safety in the rough seas. I looked at the huge waves and sensed their awesome power; much bigger and stronger than me. I saw the safety rails and saw how flimsy there were by comparison to the might of the waves. I thought about what it would be like floating out in the wild ocean, my parents wouldn’t be able to rescue me in these conditions. I was a strong swimmer, but even in calm weather the coast was much too far away. Would I drown first, or would the sharks get me first? This was a dangerous activity, no reason for not doing it, but a good reason to shackle my self to the boat. Then I was filled with deep questions about death and taking on concepts like soul and heaven or on the other hand not being. I guess I would have been about eight, quite young for such existential truths, the ocean can be a great teacher.

One of the highlights of sailing was when the dolphins came to visit. Often they would come up to us for a short while then head off again, which was a little disappointing. My Mum told me this was because they were hunting and had only come to see if we had any fish for them, the fishing trawlers would often dump unwanted fish over the side. Things got really got exciting when they came to play. They would swim right up close to the boat, surf the bow wave and leap in arcs through the air. It is easy to forget that dolphins are mammals and not so different to us. The dolphins enjoyed seeing us as much as we enjoyed seeing them.

Since then I have had the opportunity to get involved with circus and have learned a lot about exotic animals in captivity. When people see these animals in circus they often imagine they are wild animals in cages. They are not wild animals, any of the exotic animals you used to see in circus were born and bread in captivity. The lions and tigers are expecting to be fed, petted and played with every day. Big pussycats really, more like spoiled rotten pets than wild animals. Elephants are more complex, they develop strong social bonds with their herd of humans. The scary thing is they are prone to have temper tantrums and member of their human herd disappearing is one of the things that can set them off. In Asia where they rescue Elephants they are slowly introduced to the wild. They are cared for by their human rescuers near wilderness with wild elephants. Over time the elephants spend less time with their human rescuers and more time with the wild elephants. The story is not so cheerful here in Australia. Here in Australia domesticated elephants can’t be introduced to the wild. The retired circus elephants neither have their circus life or a life in the wild, it’s a bit sad really. I saw a performing seal act on the Sunshine Coast, the seal came from the wild in Western Australia. It had taken to stealing sandwiches at a popular tourist spot. Then people started feeding the seal. As a result it was living off of sandwiches when it was meant to live off fresh fish and it started to get sick. The animal welfare people had to be called in to rescue it. It ended up being domesticated and taught to do tricks in return for fresh fish, it seemed perfectly happy with the arrangement. But dolphins – no. Dolphins don’t breed in captivity, any dolphins you see in captivity were once swimming around with their dolphin friends in the ocean hunting fish. Captive dolphins grind their teeth and end up toothless after a time, as a result they can not be reintroduced to the wild because they can’t hunt without teeth. Some exotic animals deal well with domestic life but not dolphins, dolphins are not meant to live in swimming pools.

Shortly before my tenth birthday we moved to California, in a nice middle class suburb of Los Angeles. My dad worked in telecommunications, he was considered an unskilled labourer in Australia, but in America he was a highly skilled technician and much better paid. We had better houses, better schools, better shops, better restaurants and most amazing of all theme parks. We visited Sea World, there were all sorts of fast rides, a giant aquarium we could go snorkelling in and I was particularly looking forward to the dolphin display. But I came out of the dolphin display feeling disturbed, I didn’t like it. Dolphins in swimming pools doing tricks like that just didn’t seem right. I much prefer my memories of dolphins in the wild playing along side our boat.

Come summer break we went to summer school. This was nothing like school, it was two days a week of fun organised activities. At the end of summer break we went as a group to Magic Mountain; a near by theme park. The grand finale was the dolphin show. A pretty blue eyed blond had decided I was going to be her boyfriend for the day. I hadn’t quite awakened to girls yet and shunned her flirting, but she was determined. Come time for the dolphin display I tell the supervisor that I don’t want to see the dolphins and would go catch a ride and see them out the front. The supervisor must have been distracted as she agreed to this and let me go my way. My would be girlfriend saw her opportunity and pounced. She was keen to go on the egg beater, there were chairs that spun around on the end of a pole that spun around a central pin. The centrifugal force was strong and pulled us toward one side on the chair; so I held on to the rails not wanting to crush her. After the ride she asked in a flustered voice…

“Why did you hold on to the hand rails!”

“I didn’t want to squish you.”

“But that was the whole point!”

She was not impressed. Looking back; if I had been more astute I could have come out of that day with my first kiss and from memory she was very pretty. Oh well, hind sight is always twenty twenty. I guess I understand dolphins better than I understand girls.