HUMANS AND DOLPHINS
Copyright Carmelo Rios, March 1995.
(Written in Spanish, translated by us.)
Ever since I can remember (and I am now almost 40 years old), I always wanted to be a diver. Since my childhood, fascination for the sea and underwater life have gone with me everywhere. Perhaps, as I would later understand, that urgent call of the deep was also an inner calling, directing me to the discovery of myself.
Many years ago I also started feeling a special attraction to the cetaceans. This attraction began after my interaction with Ulyses, an orca at the aquarium in Barcelona. At the time, not knowing the wide range of literature available on the subject, I sensed that those beings had something in common with humans, something that cannot be explained with words, something conveyed in a mere glance. That experience committed me, forever, to the search of a relationship between humans and dolphins. I have travelled, read books, and obtained as many articles as possible in Spanish, as well as other languages. I found that very few of us understand my concern. I was fortunate to read a book written about Jacques Mayol, the exceptional French diver. This book confirmed my speculations that a certain mysticism of the sea and dolphins does exist in the world. I could not imagine then, that one day I would have a personal experience of my own which coincided with what Jacques Mayol related.
It happened one morning in March , 1995. The sun was warm and was announcing Spring on the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. It was midday and I was with other Professional Divers of the Fire Fighters. We were sailing back to the harbor after a difficult dive in a rough area. We were slowly entering the cove of the small harbor at Costa Brava of Catalu a, when I heard one of my mates shouting: "A dolphin! A dolphin! " Sure enough, a beautiful bottlenose dolphin, about three meters long, was swimming towards the boat. I lost a few seconds, putting on my mask and fins and then slipped into the water. When I entered the water I saw coming towards me the tender look and wonderful smile of this dolphin. Later I would come to know her as "Dolfi", a beautiful female dolphin. She was by herself and habituated the French border, swmming up and down to the south of Spain.
This was also the first time I heard the sonar of a dolphin directed at me under the water . This began something that I can only describe as "a ritual of joy", a celebration of freedom with our group of almost twenty divers and the dolphin.
Slowly she taught us the game rules: She didn't like to be held by the dorsal fin, nor the other fins; she didn't like us to try to stop her, something that seemed impossible anyway. Her games were very demanding: we had to swim, splash around, dive, and ... wait for our turn.
She played with everyone--with each person she had something to share. We soon noticed that she was most attracted to those that showed vitality and joy. The group was euphoric. I could see several normally "rough" divers playing like children with the dolphin. Realizing she was drawn most to the euphoric people, I prompted myself to relive the happiest moments of my life. As soon as I was successful at forgetting my day-to-day life. and was feeling truly happy, Dolfi swam to me immediately and allowed me to ride her on the waves, diving with me on her back and bringing me up to breathe. I became aware that she was inviting me to go with her to the deep, to the open sea. It was that moment that I had to let go of her dorsal fin and come back to the surface for a breath of air. She stopped, looked at me with what felt like a smile. I felt to her with my mind: "I can't go! I 'll die down there! " "Dont you see? . . . I am "human."
For each of us, she transmitted something--to each child, to each observer in the harbour, she had a fleeting "smile." I have always been eternally grateful for that gift of life she generously shared.
Slowly, amidst her leaps, jumps, swipes of her tail, snorts and cavorting, she was exhausting us all., Soon I was alone with her in the water. We spent almost two hours together in her uninterrupted games. I was floating and attempting to relax inwardly when she swam directly below me and
