What about man's best friend in the Ocean?

Dolphins have always been very mystical to man and to me that is no exception - I have always been captivated by them.

My Uncle owned an apartment block called Dolphin Court and we grew up around them in Durban, South Africa. Growing up there on the Indian Ocean we could either seeing them swim by in the ocean in the wild (especially when surfing or boogie boarding or we could attend their shows at Sea World put on their domesticated counterparts.

I remember two stalwarts at Durban's Sea World back then called Purdy and Gambit - named after The Avengers characters. I am sure they have long passed on especially with the facility having moved south to the uShaka marine world which can be seen at http://www.ushakamarineworld.co.za/

Dolphins have done so much for man in the ocean over the eons and have received our praise and worship all over the place ancient Greece and Crete. More modern stories of dolphins guiding ships, saving shipwrecked sailors and being a light of guidance to us are all very common. Olivia Newton John wrote the Dolphin song back when I was a very young kid and that also inspired me.

We've also been very horrified in recent years when we see our fellow sea mammals victims to Tuna fishing and gill nets and being treated in harsh ways. Out of all the sea creatures we have an affinity with dolphins both on a concious and sub-concious level and the feeling is mutual or probably even stronger from their end.

Dolphin Therapy - a whole new level to our Relationship

However since 1994, and ironically when I first got access to a very primitive and infant thing called the Internet whilst living in the UK I became a very big fan of Dolphin Therapy. 

Organizations such as the Aqua Thought Foundation and Dolphin Plus really caught my imagination especially reading the theory behind it all and seeing the value our finned friends bring to us. For more information as an intro see:

http://www.henryspink.org/dolphin_therapy.htm

Dolphins can detect some very interesting things with their sonar and other senses including unhealthy organs and tumours in humans.

I remember reading a case back in 1995 where an adult male human (if memory serves me correctly) was swimming with dolphins and was "rammed" by a male dolphin who swam into him rather aggressively. The man was in pain and a little annoyed with the experience and went to hospital for X-Rays.

Then came a surprise and a very positive change in attitude towards that dolphin - he realised that he had early stages of cancer of the liver at the location where the dolphin had rammed him so in fact the dolphin was trying to warn him of a health hazard that he needed to know about! I turns out that he got successful treatment as they had detected it early all thanks to the male dolphin who had appeared aggressive at the time.

This is one of many cases and dolphins are being used to help autism and a whole host of other ailments suffered by mankind.

Personally I want to get the velcro off the seat of my own pants as I have been wanting to attend a dolphin site for a number of years now and try some of the soothng therapy myself.

If this interests you just like it does me, do some research as this is a fascinating topic - maybe you or one of your loved ones come benefit someday too. Here are some nice intro videos on the topic too. Enjoy!