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moving apart, evidently keeping in continual
communication with one another,
displaying the so-called ‘power of the
pod’—the beauty of being a truly connected
group. The seals appeared to be accepted
as part of the pod.
These were the common dolphins
(Delphinus delphinus), with long smiling
snouts, white bellies, dark backs and the
distinctive hourglass pattern. They are not
seen much on the Atlantic side, more often
seen surfing in the waves in the Indian
Ocean. The word ‘common’ refers to their
geographically wide occurrence. This is
probably the same species depicted by the
ancient Minoans on the frescos of the Palace
of Knossos. The ancient Greeks held
dolphins in high esteem. It is said that they
modelled their society on the freedom and
self-discipline of dolphins. Interestingly, the
word ‘dolphin’ has the same roots as Delphi,
(seat of the most important ancient
Greek temple, and the oracle of Delphi),
meaning womb, source of life and wisdom.
To the Australian Aboriginal tribes, the Dolphin
is deeply sacred, being their wise, elder
brother. When an Aboriginal dies, his spirit
becomes a Dolphin.
After a while the group seemed to lose
interest in ‘entertaining me’ and started to
move off. By this stage I was quite elated.
The joy of dolphins is infectious—the healing
and serotonin-enhancing effects that the
presence of dolphins induce are well-documented.
Certainly everything seemed
brighter and clearer, and sparkled with
freshness.
To rekindle their curiosity I started to imitate
the sounds that they made clearing their
breathing holes and splashed the paddle
around, speaking to them in soothing tones.
This brought the pod racing back in my direction
and they proceeded to repeat the
whole performance, leaping and dancing
in the air. I started paddling out at a steady
pace. “Let’s race” they seemed to be saying
to me. They swam alongside the kayak, and
under the boat, every now and then one
Chapman’s Bay
would race forward and leap out in front of
the kayak, its smiling face a few meters from
mine.
The dolphin encounter lasted for about
half an hour, but seemed a lot longer. I felt
as if reality had been temporarily suspended,
and I had been transported into
their world.
Dolphins have the second highest brainto-body
weight ratio in the animal world,
only slightly less than that of humans (1.19
% for dolphins as apposed to 2.1% for humans,
and 0.7 % for Chimps). But their intelligence
has evolved in a different direction
to that of humans. Perfecting their relationship
to their environment, they have
no need for the polluting technologies that
appear to be essential for modern humans
to survive. A dolphin’s built-in sonar far
surpasses the performance of man-made
equipment. They can tell size, shape, texture,
and also density. Furthermore, no one
has, as of yet, been able to jam their sonar.
It would appear that dolphins live in a
state of sheer exuberant joy in being alive.
During encounters with them in the wild
we are reminded that this too is our inherently
natural state of being (so yearned for
by everybody yet so painfully inaccessible
to most of humanity).
While dolphins are more than willing to
share their world with humans, humans
continue to pollute and even persecute
them. Although dolphins enjoy protection
throughout most of the world, they are still
hunted in some parts, notably Japan and
Norway. In South Africa as in most parts of
the world they suffer from indirect perse-
Derek Berliner photo
cution from drift nets, and the bio-accumulation
of industrial and agricultural pollutants.
Eventually, the dolphins and seals disappeared
into the deep blue, and I paddled
back to the closest beach, to rest and assimilate
the experience. The beach was
desolate but for a lone horse rider who had
witnessed the encounter. She rode up to
me as I pulled the boat clear of the water.
“That must have been quite a treat,” she
said. ❏
© Derek Berliner is a South African specialist
in terrestrial ecology who has worked in Africa
and abroad in wildlife management, research,
training, consulting and biodiversity impact
assessment. He believes travel writing to be a
more effective way of getting environmental
values across to the general public than
technical and scientific reports.
eco-logic@mweb.co.za
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