President’s Man pleads to save worldwide dolphins
Thursday, July 29, 2004
As the Cayman Islands continues to hold diverse opinions concerning a
scheduled captive dolphin facility, an assistant to US President Bush has added
to the debate.
Special assistant and senior speechwriter Matthew Scully has written the
non-fiction work Dominion, subtitled The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals,
and the Call to Mercy.
Recently released in paperback worldwide, the book highlights the debate
about dolphins in several chapters.
Mr Scully recounts marine biologist Kenneth Norris’s encounter with a dolphin
trapped by a closing net controlled by speedboats. Eventually the dolphin was
able to jump the cork-line at the edge of the net.
He recorded, “It knew it was free. It burst forward, propelled by powerful
wide-amplitude tail strokes… it then dove, swimming at full speed…down and away
into dark water, only to burst from the surface in a high-bounding series of
leaps.”
In a later chapter, Mr Scully focused on the care dolphins have shown their
own species and also the human species.
In 1999 an international crisis arose surrounding the young Cuban refugee
Elian Gonzalez. His mother died during their sea-voyage to the United States and
he arrived in the United States with the US government uncertain of his return
to Cuba.
According to several reports, when Elian was rescued off the coast of Florida
he could not “stop talking about the fact his best friends were dolphins.”
One observer noted: “Do you realise that when his mom died, the dolphins
started surrounding him, entertaining him, protecting him from the sharks? And
for almost two days, the dolphins kept him alive and away from harm.”
Further corroborating that incident, the Associated Press similarly reported
the instance of a young boy who was swept into San Francisco Harbour, and was
circled by dolphins fending off sharks for two hours.
In the final section of the book, Mr Scully cited noted author Paul Theroux’s
prediction that 100 years from now the water will be emptied of marine mammals.
Mr Scully penned his final wish that: “Nature has made whales and dolphins to
swim the seas away from man. Therefore we should not track them down by
helicopters and attack or electrocute them from factory ships, until they are
almost gone from the waters.”
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