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According to American reserarcher John C. Lilly "Whales and dolphins may have more to teach us than we can teach them". "The brain of the whale developed 30 million years ago - the human brain only 100,000 years ago". It´s a fact. What damage have the whales done during their 30 million years of "conscious" existence on the earth? If it wasn´t for us human beings, the oceans of this planet would still be just like they used to be - populated by peaceful beings co-existing in ecological harmony. Is there a message for us somewhere? Or are the whales nothing more than dumb animals that weren´t clever enough to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over all the earth? How clever are we humans really? Have we created a paradise on earth with all our glorious wars and the destruction they cause, with our so-called progress in the technological age? We are constantly chasing a so-called "improved standard of living" while we wilfully destroy the environment on which we depend and in which we live. We are reproducing like the clappers - although we know that homo sapiens as a species may soon be a thing of the past.
And although saints and prophets, mathematicians and philosophers proved 5,000 years ago that what we are doing is absolute madness - still we carry on. Ever faster, more frantic and more destructive. Is that clever?
Barbarous commercial practices and our greed for financial gain almost wiped out the whales completely and they are now recovering from what I call the plague of the human being. At least where the hunting and slaughter of them is concerned. But our scientists have discovered that marine radar, the channel tunnel, hydrofoils and satellite communication probably interfere with the whales´sensitive echo-location system or may even destroy it altogether. Front-page stories of them stranded on our shores, crushed and smothered by the weight of their own bodies, abound in the popular press.
What can we learn from whales? Maybe nothing. Cynics say "If one day there are no whales left it would be a pity but it wouldn´t be the end of the world".
But there is an undeniable connection between human beings and dolphins which is a far cry from our intellectually-determined and narrow vision of reality. Spiritual people especially feel an indescribable connection with wild dolphins. There are reports from a growing number of people that encounters with wild dolphins changed them - either they became deeply moved, happy or sometimes sad - but in each case they felt a profound change. No scientist has succeeded in explaining this phenomenon but at the same time, neither has any scientist yet been able to explain what happens between two people who love each other.
It is an undeniable fact that a special connection has existed between humans and dolphins since time immemorial. There are even reports of close friendshiops or relationships between dolphins and humans which last for many years - between humans and wild dolphins I may add. The poor harried creatures we find in delfinaria and amusement parks have been reduced to tortured, performing animals which have been violently torn from their natural habitat and who have to earn their keep by doing circus tricks. Perhaps they "entertain" audiences in order not to die of boredom in their undeserved pools or to prevent themselves dying even earlier than they will do anyway. No. Wild dolphins who are free and have never been imprisoned, fed or manipulated by humans, befriend them. Why? No one knows the reason why. In the meantime, there are innumerable reports of dolphins who have warned ships about impending danger or who have stopped them from running aground on rocks. And there are just as many reports from all over the world about dolphins who have saved people from drowning by accompanying or carrying them to shore.
It has been proved that dolphins behave differently towards pregnant women and disabled children than they do towards other people. And reports of dolphins attacking or injuring people are almost unknown. It is a well-known fact that dolphins are particularly intelligent - however it is difficult for us to comprehend as intelligence is a human concept which refers to the human intellect and human "thinking". So what about the other (human) concept we refer to (not only in a religious context) as the "soul"? There are clearly some definite forms of communication between dolphins and humans but we have not yet been able to research any of them. But experiments initiated by different groups and institutions are ongoing in many parts of the world. Sometimes we can feel what the dolphins are trying to tell us - but we can´t (yet) grasp the meaning of it.
The Club de Mar in Valle Gran Rey is also active in protecting other endangered species in the coastal waters of La Gomera.
If you identify with the objectives of our Club, if you love the sea and its inhabitants, if you are concerned about the future of La Gomera and if you would like to make a small contribution towards maintaining ecological harmony in the ocean, you are most welcome to do so - wherever you may live and whatever language you may speak.
The ocean unites the people.
The earth divides them.
Herodotus