Twenty Years with the Dolphins

This informative and very entertaining DVD is about our efforts to study and know our close (intellectual) neighbors on this planet - the dolphins (and whales) - other large brained mammals. So far, we have learned a little bit about each other, and can at least play nicely together, and have learned when we have been asked to go home and leave them alone! And of course, the dolphins have, on many anecdotal and now several documented occasions, helped humans in times of danger. The studies it portrays have heightened awareness of dolphin endangerment world-wide, and contributed to turning dolphin-killing countries into dolphin protectors. Over 20 years ago, Hardy Jones and Julia Whitty began studying dolphins in an area 30 miles off the Bahamas, the White Sands Ridge. This area, only 25 feet deep, was especially suitable for the local "spotted dolphins" to rest in during the day, because any sharks penetrating the waters below them were easily sighted and either group-attacked, or run from. The first couple of years that Hardy and Julia went hunting dolphins to study, they had to be very patient. It might take an entire season to catch good footage and observations. They identified various individuals by their markings, many of which, unfortunately, were wounds inflicted by passing boat propellers, or man-made items getting caught around their bodies when they were wee ones, etc. One individual, "Chopper", named for a chopped-off appearance on his dorsal (back) fin, they were able to reliably identify over a period of 20 years; hence the title. Obviously, they learned a lot by being able to follow a single individual`s life over two decades. This DVD shows amazing footage of dolphins interacting with humans - playing with them with intended toys as well as new "equipment" the dolphins were curious about; just enjoying swimming with humans as if welcoming them into their world (one time, appearing to invite Julia to come with them away from the boat, "home" with them); "rescuing" humans from dangers such as a shark intruder; and also blocking their human friends from the nearly sacred community act of birthing a baby. Most years the dolphins found the researchers more than vice versa; the humans went to the right "spot" and waited until the dolphins sonared their presence and joined them. The scientists finally developed an underwater computer that accurately captured and replayed the dolphins` voices. The dolphins were VERY excited when they realized that "MAN can TALK!" Unfortunately, it was short-lived once the dolphins realized that MAN could only repeat what the dolphins said; he did not have the ability to add on anything (the dolphins would repeat what MAN had recorded, then add a couple of "words", and wait for MAN to add a few more; but poor dumb MAN, with his computer, couldn`t add anything - yet). Hopefully the dolphins will be patient while we learn to "add" on to their phrases, proving we ARE intelligent life forms, after all!