Dolphin show!!

I was fortunate to visit the largest aquariums in the world, one in Osaka and one in Atlanta. They both call themselves "the largest" depending on different sorting criteria. Both were fascinating! The aquariums provide a great opportunity for children and adults to meet the ocean animals and engage with marine life. While serving this purpose, aquariums are very valuable and educative.

However, the other side of the coin is somewhat dark to me. All those animals are taken out from their natural environments. Especially, the background of dolphin training is not that compatible with the life that the dolphins typically have in their natural environments.

Dolphins always have had a special place in my heart and I think they are one of the blessings on this planet. So maybe you can imagine how happy I was, one day when a group of dolphins showed up and made a wonderful show for us for about an hour! It was not just me of course, all the crew were so happy to see them.  We all enjoyed their wonderful show. Some of them were leaping above the water surface so high and then splashing water all round while falling. Some performed tail splashes for about five minute long sessions.

These are some of the ways of communication for dolphins, each means different things in their social group. Sometimes dolphins perform acrobatics in order to get away from the parasites or looking for schools of fish, or sometimes just for fun! We really enjoyed their show!

White-sided dolphins leaping around

Here is some brief info about dolphins from the Encyclopedia of Life:

Dolphins are marine mammals closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from 1.2m (4ft) and 40kg (90) (Maui's dolphin), up to 9.5m and 10 tonnes (9.8 long tons; 11 short toms) (the orca or killerwhale). They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, eating mostly fish and squid. The family Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacean order, and evolved relatively recently, about ten million years ago, during the Miocene. Dolphins are among the most intelligent animals, and their often friendly appearance and seemingly playful attitude have made them popular in human culture.

Dolphins also display culture, something long believed to be unique to humans (and also possibly other primate species). In May 2005, a discovery in Australia found Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins teaching their young to use tools. They cover their snouts with sponges to protect them while foraging. This knowledge is mostly transferred by mothers to daughters, unlike simian primates, where knowledge is is generally passed on to both sexes. Using sponges as mouth protection is a learned behaviour. Another learned behaviour was discovered among river dolphins in Brazil, where some male dolphins use weeds and sticks as part of a sexual display ("Dolphins." Encyclopedia of Life, 2012).

White-sided Dolphin

Bottlenose Dolphin

Spotted Dolphin

Dusky Dolphin

Killer whales, also known as Orcas

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Reference:

Dolphin. In Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved from http://eol.org/pages/7659/details in June, 2012.
Photos retrieved from http://eol.org/pages/7659/details in June, 2012.