Nexus - 0110 - New Times Magazine-pages

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ow Ss A new regular feature SOs esented | ene née Delphi DOLPHINS ARE TRULY WONDROUS _| THE SECOND DOLPHIN & WHALE CONFERENCE Throughout history, both written and Are you intrigued by dolphin and whale behaviour and their verbal, dolphins have inspired human | interaction with human beings? Imagine spending five days at ; beings. There has always been a strong | a beach resort with a ‘pod’ of 380 humans, with ‘experts’ and pull, eqetialis where it is known that dolphins come into | ‘visionaries’ discussing everything under the sun (and ocean harbours and coastal areas. People continue to flock to these | too) to do with cetaceans ie dolphins and whales... the second areas. Once that single-eyed look has been felt, that chatter and | International Dolphin and Whale Conference was held in May, clicking heard and their smile caught, an impression ismade on | 1990, again at Nambucca Heads. the heart that cannot be easily forgotten. For Dr Horace Dobbs of England, swimming with dolphins Backin the 16th Century Pierre Belon, ascientistofthe time, | may bea cure for depression. For Dr David Nathanson of USA, conducted anatomical dissection of dolphins and found the | downs-syndrome children may improve their learning ability skeletal structure suggestive of an association with the homo | when a dolphin swim is their reward. For Dr Betsy Smith of sapiens race. It is worthwhile to point out that a species’ | USA, autisticchildren may have their barrier tocommunication evolutionary history can be traced by studying its skeletal | penetrated as a result of being in the water with dolphins. structure. This principle applies to all forms of life. CONTROVERSY: BABYSWIMMING & WATERBIRTH Belon found that “in the dolphin’s skeleton one finds four Cookie Harkin, from “Babyswim”, a Victorian organization, limbs, hips, an articulated neck with seven vertebrae - in short, | spoke on the importance of creating a loving environment for all the equipmentof aland mammal such asadog... The forelegs | optimum learning. Within each child there is a natural love of have telescoped but all the joints are still there, including five | learning, so teaching a baby to swim isa joyous process andeasy complete fingers, now protected by a mitten of flesh in the form | when you know how. of a fin, of the hind legs nothing remains but the hips: two little Not so for Igor Charkovsky from Russia. In contrast, his bones lost in the flesh near the bony protuberances on the spine | presentation shocked many of the conference audience with his which reminds us of the pelvis that was once there... these tiny | description of the need to ‘toughen’ children, and that babies remnants of bones on the verge of disappearing... (are) eloquent } have an innate fear of water! Seeing the crying children and asis the absence of the skeleton in the caudal fluke andthe dorsal | fearful mothers (whose fear he dismisses as “irrational” ) in his fin, both... purely aquatic parts of the cetacean’s equipment in | latest video alarmed a significant number of those present. He which there is nothing but fibrous tissues and fat... materials | seems also to have transformed waterbirth from ‘gentle’ to other then bone. The conclusion of the modern evolutionist is: | ‘experimental’, as his clients now give birth into icy water, as with typical land features on the point of disappearingand some | part of this “toughening up” process. Perhaps Charkovsky’s new, purely aquatic features, the cetaceans are former land | methods left us with more questions than answers mammals now adapted to their new life in a denser liquid Incounterpoint, Cookie posed another question: why is it that environment.” , the babies of mothers who swim during pregnancy have a There are many things learnt from dolphins; primarily their | greater affinity with water than those babies whose mothers enormous capacity for friendship, love and and theirenchanting | have experienced water birth but not pre-natal swimming? playfulness. I feel the value of this love cannot be under- With continuing public debate, it was resolved that dolphins estimated or over-emphasised. From a purely political and | held in captivity in chlorinated and concrete tanks is cruel, and conservationist perspective there isa lotto be done to save these | stated “dolphins must be respected as equals with freedom of mammals. To this end many people are working, investing their | choice of movement; not as our pets for our pleasure”. time, money and their lives to turn this around, A code of ethics was drawn up in respect to whale watching “We can choose which beings are expressions of thatlove, | and suggested that boats with motors should be banned and which feelings thoughts and actions exemplify that love in | completely in whale preserve areas. Would whales breach at all ourselves and others,” says Joan Ocean. if we were not there in motorised vessels to observe them doing by MARA-VENERA CARMELLA so? Are they in fact, breaching (jumping above waterline) When you purchase an item made by The Dolphin Lady | simply to avoid the disturbing sound pollution from boat motors? Australia 2% goes to Greénpeace for their Ocean Ecology With dancing to live music, group singing, an Aboriginal Campaign with focus on the senseless slaughter of whales | corroboree, and a flute performance by Paul Horn (“Inside the turtles & dolphin pods through the tuna fishing & driftnetting. | Great Pyramid”, “Inside the Taj Mahal”) the fun was abundant. 1. R. STENUIT “The Dolphin: Cousin to Man”, Pelican 1971 The Third International is to be held in Hawaii in May, 2. JOAN OCEAN “Dolphin Connection”, Spiral Books 1989 | 1991. Notso mucha conference asa festival of ideas. Be there. -— The 53 Nexus *10