The shallow, gin-clear waters of the Bahamas
are a tropical paradise a favorite spot
for sport fishermen and scuba divers alike.
These waters are also one of the few areas
in the world where humans can regularly spend
time with dolphins underwater.
This is where we get the information about
what the life of a wild dolphin is really
about.
The Wild Dolphin Project s Research Director
and Founder Dr. Denise Herzing has dedicated
her career to immersing herself in the dolphins
world.
In the wild, we deal with all sorts of challenges.
Number one is weather, if we can't get to
where they live, we can't see them.
Number two is finding them because they might
move 20-30 miles in a day, and it's a big
ocean.
And then spending regular time with
individuals, if you really want to get a sense
of their society, that's also challenging.
We're definitely at the mercy of the dolphins.
They've got interesting lives without us.
They don't really need to be around us or interact with us.
So, when they allow us in the water to spend
a little time with them, it's always a great
privilege.
Through decades of patient observation and
meticulous photo identification, Denise has
documented the lives and behaviors of multiple
generations of Atlantic spotted dolphins.
The group is small, we are dealing with a
hundred animals.
So, we can get repeatability in different
observations.
I wanted to understand their society, how
they communicate with each other, individually
and as a group.
We tend to think of higher intelligence
involving things like thinking about the future,
planning, problem solving, abstract concepts...
Probably the one last thing on the list is
language.
Dolphins have shown that they can comprehend
in an artificial language, things like word
order and understanding.
It doesn't mean they have it in their own
system.
That still has to be shown - if it exists.
This is a story about scientific exploration
but it is also a story about friendship.
The dolphins are like my kids except I don t
have to send them to college.
Ha, ha.
It's cheaper that way.
What can mankind learn from wild dolphins?
Can we bridge the gap of understanding between
us?