Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Manta rays and dolphin rescue

OK, this puts my own manta ray video to shame.

This video was taken at what I believe is the same location where I have now twice gone diving at night to see manta rays. It is a famous spot off the Kona coast where several dive companies set up bright lights to attract plankton, which in turn attract manta rays--which themselves attract divers and snorkelers who pay to gain access to the site, of course. This video shows how a nighttime manta ray dive a couple weeks ago turned into a dolphin rescue.

Bottlenose dolphins are intelligent creatures, so I wouldn't be surprised if this dolphin, whose fin and mouth were tangled with fishing line and hook, purposely sought out this large group of humans in the hope that one could help. Once one of the divers started to untangle it (around 3:30), the dolphin certainly looked like it was trying to hold still for him. Federal law technically prohibits "lay people" from touching or getting too close to marine mammals, but in this case I think it was a good call: the dolphin was seemingly asking for help (with a problem caused by humans in the first place), and the divers couldn't exactly explain that it would have to wait for a NOAA-sanctioned diver to arrive. Anyway, I think it's a heartwarming video. Enjoy.

2 comments:

jkforreal said...

like a view into the earth as God meant it, w us being good to animals. No, the next earth will be so different - no nets, i guess. Hopeful, exciting, well shot and has dolphins! - thanks for vid.

Vanessita said...

Glad the dolphin could be helped! They help us humans so many times in the wild, I think it was indeed probably seeking help back this time. Such intelligent animals, they probably know that we are also intelligent (though many times incredibilly stupid too) and able to help.
Say Eleni, have you watched Blackfish yet? It's a must-see movie about the cruelty of keeping these highly intelligent animals in such cruel conditions of captivity. If I'm not mistaken, I watched The Cove because of a post from your blog, years ago. Glad to see you're still updating it! Cheers :)