Can we relate to dolphins? Or should we leave them alone?

Some researchers think we should leave them alone, but biologist Denise L. Herzing, who is the world’s leading authority on dolphins and has been studying them for 25 years, believes in relating to them. In the September 20th edition of the New York Times, Erik Olsen quotes her as saying, “I’m kind of an old-school naturalist. I really believe in immersing yourself in the environment of the animal."

She has tracked three generations of dolphins in her Florida hometown and knows each of them by name (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show). Next year she plans to begin a new phase of her research, something which has been a lifetime goal. She wants to have real-time two-way communication with dolphins, in which THEY initiate the communication. Up to now, dolphins mostly RESPOND to humans, usually with food as a reward for performing a task. Olsen quotes her as saying, "It’s rare that we ask dolphins to seek something from us."

She believes that dolphins will seek to communicate with us with the only reward being the social interaction itself, instead of a fish "treat." She thinks that dolphins and humans can develop a crude vocabulary for objects and actions, in the same way that other humans have managed to communicate with chimps. The system she will test next year is being developed with artificial intelligence scientists and consists of a wearable underwater computer that can make dolphin sounds. It can also identify which dolphin is making the sound, which is hard to do, since dolphins rarely open their mouths.

Dolphins are excellent mimics, so divers will interact with each other in front of dolphins. First they will play a synthesized whistle sound, while one hands the other a scarf or a piece of seaweed, in order to establish an association between sound and object., and the hope is that they will imitate the whistle to request an object or initiate play.

Olsen quotes marine mammal expert Stan Kuczaj as saying, "The key is going to be coming up with a system in which the dolphins want to communicate. If they don’t care, it won’t work. "It depends on what you mean by communicate. I can communicate with my dog, too. But do I have conversations with my dog? Well, if I do they’re very one-sided."

One would think that people who have contacts with "the Grays" would find it hard to communicate, but surprisingly, this isn’t the case at all. Some of them even feel like they are seeing members of their "family." We’re not sure that the Visitors are from another planet (they may be from a parallel universe), but we know they’re HERE because Anne Strieber has interviewed a large group of "contactees" (in a totally unique repository of information) about their experiences told IN THEIR OWN WORDS. If you subscribe today, you can listen to all TWELVE of these fascinating conversations!