Broward Community College - Silver Sands Yearbook (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

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'lphins don't get hostile, he explained. l've never seen ostile dolphin. riey are very conscious animals, he noted. They are oably the most conscious and highly evolved animal in the ii BD. :phins have a superior echo-ranging device similar to sonar, by explained. He knows where he is and what's around at all times. As a result, a dolphin is never in a dangerous . II lation, he added. Cause of this device he is practically guaranteed his l tence, Truby noted. lean life is rough. The majority of dolphins are 'roughing ll the time, he explained. I suppose the life span of 1 lphin in its natural environment is at least 40 years, most lly more, he said. fever, he added that in captivity the life span of a dolphin ,ss than ten years. ii dolphins have been used on the Flipper television show now all of them are dead, he noted. lTruby, professor of linguistics at the University of lVliami, ked with dolphins in the area of communications for lO l's, which included work with Dr. John Lilly at the nmunication Research Institute in Coconut Grove. Man uses 6,000 different languages throughout the world, yet people can't get along in one language, he asserted. People NEED to know how to obtain food, water and a means to live. They don't need to know what is happening elsewhere. Dolphins communicate only the things necessary to live, not superflous ideas, he claims. Truby explained that the dolphin which has a hearing ability 10 times higher than man's hearing, has four methods of communication, including sonar and three techniques of vocalization which can be used under water as well as in the 3ll'. The three methods of vocalization are whistles and click train, both used by dolphins to communicate with other nearby dolphins, and humanoids, a term invented by Dr. Lilly which describes the dolphins' imitative vocalizations of human language. I don't think the dolphin can learn human language because he has no incentive to learn it and lacks the necessary equipment to learn the language, Dr. Truby claims. The dolphin doesn't learn, he mimicks. lf he learns, why would he choose English? Why wouldn't he choose to learn dolphinese or whaIese? he added. Dolphins. What do you think of when someone mentions dolphins now? xg - ,.... H Q f , ,,,. --5, sv r- , evil' V'---gr, J.. . W e , L . 1 ua 111.1-1 Y ,,,,,,,.. e -gulf' :H l . QF x 1 i jf-F' i -, d

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By initiating a new zoo concept, O'Feldman explained, they hope to set an example of what can be done with the dolphins. Currently located on Mashta Island on Key Biscayne, the Dolphin Project, which operates on donations and with the aid of 20 volunteers, has two small dolphins, each weighing about 200 pounds, in a one and a half acre lagoon which opens into the sea. Unlike themethods used at oceanaria where dolphins are fed and then expected to perform, the two dolphins, Liberty, the male, and Florida, the female, just eat . . . five times a day. Their diet consists of ten pounds of Spanish mackeral a day. When they're not eating, they're playing. They don't do much work, it's pretty much all play, Roger Stephens, one of the two night watchmen at the project, asserted. But even this location is not suitable for their plans because the water isn't sufficiently clear to enable them to study the dolphins, O'FeIdman noted. For this reason, the project will be relocated to Buck lsland National Park at St. Croix in the Virgin Islands in about a year. Described by O'Feldman as a Seaquarium without dolphins, they will be supplying the necessary ingredients to the park. This will be a perfect situation for scientists and students to study dolphins in their natural environment because the water is very clear, he added. Dr. Trudy described the optimal lagoon as an entire bay where the dolphins could live but not leave. We want to provide a lagoon large enough for a realistic natural environment because we have to restrict the dolphins to that area to protect them from hunters, pollution, kooks and other animals that would endanger them, Trudy noted. In addition to the dolphin research station, the 250 member foundation wants to initiate the necessary legislation that would stop people from hunting dolphins in Biscayne Bay. Dr. Truby noted that only one species of dolphin is native to Florida, Tursiops truncatus, familiar to most people as the Bottlenose dolphin. This is the dolphin which performs at oceanaria throughout the world, and appears on television and in motion pictures. Although there aren't many Bottlenose dolphin left in Biscayne Bay, according to Truby, there is a small number in there. lf the fishermen left them alone the dolphins would restock themselves in the bay, he added. The fisherman, some of which are professional dolphin hunters, O'Feldman noted, obtain permits from Tallahassee to hunt the Bottlenose Dolphin, which are later taken to Europe for use in oceanaria, and sold to private conce well as to the US Navy. Although Tallahassee has declared Biscayne Bay pol O'Feldman maintains that there is a large amount of and animal life in the bay. I don't think the water pollution harms dolphins, but -i air pollution is bad it could be harmful because air is A right into dolphins' lungs, he added. ' Truby explained that dolphins, employed by the US if are being trained reportedly to carry knives to kill ei frogmen off Vietnam and they are also being trained to explosives. He noted that in general dolphins have a good understaa of people's intentions. These dolphins are probably tri to believe that what they're doing is fun or a joke, he ai He explained that the dolphins are being trained at thi Navy Undersea Warfare School located at Point Ml California. People should know about it, they're using our money added. From working with dolphins, l don't see how it cou done, O'Feldman, who was a diver in the Navy, said. not sure, but if they do this, they must use drugs witl dolphins. lt would be easy to do with drugs, he si When they're not eating, they're playing. They don't do much says Roger Stephens, night watchman at the Dolphin Project. pm-'Swv

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