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Nick-la
Wonder Wit

Joined: July 19, 2003
Posts: 3675
Location: Wasted on this site

Posted: Nov 24, 2004 - 09:53 AM
Post subject: Dolphins Rule

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1357888,00.html

Dolphins save swimmers from shark attack

Associated Press
Tuesday November 23, 2004

Dolphins play off the coast of New Zealand. Photograph: Rob Griffith/AP

A pod of dolphins saved a group of swimmers from a great white shark off the northern coast of New Zealand, it was reported today.
The incident happened when lifeguard Rob Howes took his 15-year-old daughter Niccy and two of her friends swimming near the town of Whangarei, according to the Northern Advocate newspaper.

Mr Howes told the newspaper that the dolphins "started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us". He explained that, when he had attempted to break away from the protective group, two of the bigger dolphins herded him back.

He then saw what he described as a three-metre great white shark cruising toward them - but it appeared to be repelled by the ring of dolphins and swam away.

"It was only about two metres away from me, the water was crystal clear, and it was as clear as the nose on my face," he said. At that point, he realised that the dolphins "had corralled us up to protect us".

Another lifeguard, Matt Fleet, who was on patrol in a lifeboat, saw the dolphins circling the swimmers and slapping their tails on the water to keep them in place. He told the newspaper he also had a clear sighting of the shark.

"Some of the people later on the beach tried to tell me it was just another dolphin - but I knew what I saw," he said.

Expert Ingrid Visser, who has been studying marine mammals for 14 years, told the Northern Advocate that there had been reports from around the world about dolphins protecting swimmers.

She said that, in this case, the dolphins probably sensed the humans were in danger and took action to protect them.

Ms Visser, of the group Orca Research, said dolphins would attack sharks to protect themselves and their young.

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Magnolia
Board Biatch

Joined: June 01, 2004
Posts: 31098

Posted: Nov 24, 2004 - 11:48 AM

How cool is that? Dolphins are incredible animals.

Thanks for sharing!

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SKy69

Talker

Joined: June 18, 2004
Posts: 87
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline

Posted: Nov 24, 2004 - 11:56 AM

You are right, that's incredible...
Thx Nick Wink

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Edgewood
FooSlinger

Joined: Jan 28, 2004
Posts: 3906
Location: Colonial Shanghai

Posted: Nov 24, 2004 - 01:19 PM

Navy Dolphin Anti-Swimmer Program
With terrorist attacks like that against USS Cole (DDG 67) in October 2000 still a very real possibility, the U.S. Navy has a new ally in the global war on terrorism – the Mk 6 anti-swimmer dolphin system.

Much more than your typical Sea World entertainers, these dolphins are dedicated Navy Sailors, standing watch over Arabian Gulf ports and deterring uninvited guests seeking to harm ships and ports. With swimmer defense experience dating back to Vietnam, the Navy’s Mk 6 dolphins are ready to deploy any time, anywhere.
http://usmilitary.about.com/b/a/017678.htm

Navy Dolphins Used As Sentinels in Gulf

ADNAN MALIK

Associated Press

MANAMA, Bahrain - The U.S. Navy has deployed dolphins to the Persian Gulf region to protect coalition ships and piers against terrorist attack.

The dolphins are trained to find a swimmer or diver and alert their handlers by knocking a ball suspended from a patrol boat.

"If there are any uninvited guests - swimmers and divers - trying to cause harm to U.S. and coalition naval assets, the dolphins can detect and locate them," said Lt. Josh Frey, a spokesman of the 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain.

Citing security reasons, Lt. Cmdr. Martin Anderson would not say how many dolphins have arrived, when they were deployed and why they were brought in now.

"We have a good enough reason to employ them here," said Anderson, who commands the Naval Forces Central Command Special Operations at the 5th Fleet base.

Anderson spoke as a 400-pound dolphin named Luke made a brief appearance at the Mina Salman port swimming alongside a Navy patrol boat. The 29-year-old, 9-foot-long dolphin stood on its tail to receive a fish that a Navy handler on the patrol boat threw in his direction.

The Navy started using marine mammals in the early 1960s, when scientists studied if dolphins' sleek shape had hydrodynamic qualities that could help improve underwater missiles.

It used dolphins during the Vietnam War, and again in the Iraq war to detect mines at the country's only deep-water port, Umm Qasr.

Dolphins were last used in Bahrain in the late 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war, when several oil tankers were attacked in the Persian Gulf. At the time, six dolphins patrolled the Bahrain harbor to protect U.S. ships from mines and enemy swimmers and escorted Kuwaiti oil tankers.

The dolphins replace sea lions that were in the region to be trained and tested for similar duty.
http://www.belleville.com/mld/newsdemocrat/6508136.htm

Hawai'i-trained Navy dolphins report for mine-clearing duty

CAMP AS SALIYAH, Qatar — Coalition forces have brought in two Hawai'i-trained Atlantic bottle-nose dolphins to help ferret out mines in the approaches of the port of Umm Qasr, Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart of the Central Command said yesterday.

The dolphins will help clear the way for the shipment of humanitarian aid to allied-held southern Iraq, Renuart said.

The dolphins, named Makai and Tacoma, were flown into Umm Qasr by U.S. Navy helicopters last night and were expected to begin searching for mines today, according to pool reports.

The dolphins are taught to avoid touching the mines, which might cause them to explode, said Capt. Mike Tillotson, a Navy bomb disposal expert. He said there was little risk to animals doing this kind of work. The biggest hazard could come from other indigenous dolphins in the waters of Umm Qasr. Dolphins are territorial and there is a fear local dolphins might drive the interlopers out, causing them to go AWOL.

The Navy started using marine mammals in the early 1960s, when military researchers began looking into how sea mammals' highly developed senses — like dolphins' sonar — could be used to locate mines and do other tasks.

Some dolphins being used by the U.S. Navy were trained in Hawai'i before the Navy's Marine Mammal Program operation moved from Kaneohe Bay Marine Base to San Diego in 1993, a Navy spokesman said yesterday.

"A whole bunch of our dolphins have Hawaiian names," said Tom Lapuzza, public affairs officer for the Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego. "A number of them were collected in the Gulf of Mexico and almost all were flown to Hawai'i, where the basic training and systems were developed."

Hawai'i researchers Louis Herman of The Dolphin Institute in Honolulu and Paul Nachtigall of the University of Hawai'i's Marine Mammal Institute on Coconut Island in Kane'ohe Bay helped develop systems used both by dolphins and sea lions for the Navy, Lapuzza said.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Mar/26/ln/ln13a.html

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Nick-la
Wonder Wit

Joined: July 19, 2003
Posts: 3675
Location: Wasted on this site

Posted: Nov 24, 2004 - 01:31 PM

Actually it's a biological fact that Dolphins have the most similar skeletons to humans. Their tail-fin's have spread out metatarsals+carpals just liek we do. And they are said to be the only other species that truly 'enjoys' non-impregnatorial sex (other animals especially chimps have sex for other reasons than having offspring, ie to keep bonds strong and to relax, but Dolphins are more like us. )

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