76.7 F
Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesA Dolphin Story With a Lesson

A Dolphin Story With a Lesson

Dear Source:
My name is Erik Miles. I am a local Virgin Islands Film Maker and Photographer with 40 plus years of experience working with marine creatures including marine mammals locally, nationally and internationally. I have worked extensively with many different species of dolphins, porpoise, whales, seals, sea lions, and manatees.
If you want to know more about me or my credentials you can go to: www.studio5films.com
In this letter I will talk about my experience in working with dolphins, in particular Bottle Nose Dolphins. I am not of the opinion that all species of marine mammals are suited to life in captivity, only a select few species, one of those is the Bottle Nose Dolphin, but I believe this should only be carried out after a certain set of circumstances should befall the dolphin.
I was very fortunate to have been present as a child during some of the work that Dr. John Lilly and Margaret Howe did when Dr. Lilly was conducting his work with dolphins at the Dolphin House in Dolphin Cove here on St. Thomas. For more you can reference the book “Lilly on Dolphins.” His work helped the creation of the United States Marine Mammal Protection Act. Margaret Howe, her husband John Lovatt and their daughters were close family friends and we would spend time with them at the Dolphin House. Dolphins were imprinted on me from an early age.
Later in life I worked for a time as a Field Technician for the VI Department of Fish and Wildlife. During which time I was present for and assisted with some marine mammal strandings.
I had always had mixed feelings towards seeing and working with Bottle Nose Dolphins in captivity, but at that time I had the strong conviction that the captive dolphins served as sort of “ambassadors” of their species to serve for the further education of the general public at the same time raising awareness and fostering a greater understanding, appreciation and love of dolphins and marine animals in general. All the while, I had pangs of regret at the freedom these few dolphins had had to forgo, even though they always seemed happy enough, content and always extremely well cared for. The dolphins also had obvious deep bonds with their trainers, and the trainers for them.
This all came to an abrupt change in my attitude on the subject with one life altering event.
In 1989 I became familiar with two dolphins, Natua and his mother, Theresa, of the “Dolphin Research Center” during a commercial film shoot here in the Virgin Islands on St. John. I have included excerpts of an account of the incident from the “Dolphin Research Center“ that were written in commemoration of Theresa’s passing at the age of 59:

It is hard to imagine that we no longer have Theresa’s "larger than life" personality in our midst. She was the matriarch, the mentor, the teacher, and the Nana to not only our dolphin family, but our human one as well.
The last surviving dolphin at Dolphin Research Center that pre-dated Jayne and Mandy’s arrival in 1972, Theresa’s passing marks the end of an era.
Theresa’s story as we know it begins in the 1960s when she was collected from the Florida Keys waters by our original founder, Milton Santini. One of an elite group of our "founder dolphins" including Mr. Gipper, Little Bit, Bee and Misty, Theresa was destined to have a very full, busy life living among humans. Originally collected for sale to the Navy, Theresa and some other dolphins were transported to ocean pens in Key West, Florida after their collection. Theresa apparently had another idea. Milton Santini, visiting DRC in the 1980s, talked with Mandy and me about her. "They took her to Key West, but I found her in Grassy Key waters again," Milton said. "I caught her again, easily, and brought her here. The Navy came looking for her at some point, but I told them I hadn’t seen her, figured she wanted to be here."
The last story of Theresa’s travels is international and the most dramatic. In 1989, she and her son, Natua, were transported to the U.S. Virgin Islands for a film shoot. These were the days that we couldn’t pay our fish bills, and doing occasional commercials and movies paid for a lot of fish! On March 3rd, Mandy and trainer Della Schuler were working with Natua outside the enclosure in Round Bay when Theresa, for reasons only she knew, jumped the fence and headed out to sea. As she raced past Mandy and Della’s boat, Nat hesitated. As Mandy tells it, "He looked up at me, turned and looked after his mother, took one more look at me – and raced after Theresa."
Though the team searched daily, using pingers and even recorded whistles of Theresa and Nat’s family here in the Keys, there was no sight of the dolphins through March 18th, when Mandy and Della made a sad, lonely return to the Keys. On the morning of March 19th, barely 12 hours after they arrived home, Mandy and Jayne received a phone call from St. Martin (an island approximately 120 miles from USVI). A friendly dolphin was hanging around one of the resorts, swimming with the guests and accepting gifts of filleted fish. Identified by the missing right corner of his tail, it was Natua. We dispatched a Lear jet, and a team including Mandy and myself. When we arrived at the beach and went into the water, Natua swam right up to Mandy, then let him place him in a stretcher. He was ready to go home!
Theresa – Even with a Tummy was Very Athletic. Where was Theresa? A week later a call came from a Fisheries biologist on St. John. He had a report from a dive shop in Tortola, (the British Virgin Islands, only 15 miles from St. John) that a dolphin was coming up to dive boats, accepting handouts and spitting at people in the water! She was identified not only by the behavior, but her beauty mark on her upper jaw. Mandy and Della flew to Tortola, and while walking a beach there heard a dolphin exhale. They blew a blast on a whistle and Theresa stuck her head out of the water looking for them! Mandy swam out to her and she accepted touches and fish, but was scared away when someone, who was trying to help, grabbed her fluke.
The next day the search was on and they found Theresa in a small bay. With the help of normally uncooperative local fishermen, they were able to use a net to get her safely into a stretcher. She had lost so much weight that Mandy decided she needed to rehabilitate on the
island before it would be safe to fly home. They set up a temporary pool in a canal on the island. Our medical director at the time, Lynne Calero, flew over and Theresa’s critical care M*A*S*H unit was set up. On April 4th, after re-hydration and several days of good meals, Theresa flew home in her own Lear jet to rejoin her family. She had lost over 125 pounds during her walk on the wild side. Nat had lost around 75 pounds but had suffered serious damage to his liver, which we believe led to his shorter lifespan.
Fortunately for Theresa, weight loss seemed to be the only catastrophe she suffered, and she got started right away on remedying that problem! Maybe that experience is why Theresa tended towards the chubby side for the rest of her life. The more serious lesson from this story, as well as Buck and Luther’s is this: Dolphins who have lived in human care for years are not simply able to be "free" again. The rose colored glasses that paint them swimming happily into the sunset were crushed by the truth of what happened to Theresa and her son Nat. Let’s remember that lesson from our Theresa. Do not try to "Free Willy" or any other marine mammals who have acclimated to living with humans. It doesn’t work – period.
Vice President of the Animal Care and Training department, Linda Erb

The full article can be found at this link: http://www.dolphins.org/theresa.php
I got to see first hand the effects of captive dolphins returning to the wild and it was devastating to dolphin and humans alike.
I have maintained contact with the “Dolphin Research Center” and know how dedicated they are to the dolphins in their care. These are animals that are the products of accidents or incidents that occurred in their natural environment or are the offspring of already captive dolphins born in captivity that would otherwise die if they were released. It is apparent to anyone visiting the premises that the trainers and staff are part of the dolphins’ family. I see the same dedication, respect and love between the trainers and staff at Coral World with the Sea Lions presently living at Coral World as I see at the Dolphin Research facility in the Florida Keys.
In summation, it has been my experience that there are individual sets of circumstances that render the Dolphins unable to survive by themselves in the wild. In these instances it is imperative that there be someplace for them to go to be cared for. When these instances arrive (and unfortunately they do arise more often than one would imagine) I think that they are good opportunities for mutually beneficial relationships in which the animals are well cared for, respected and given a family unit that is so important to the social creatures that they are. At the same time allowing further education, understanding and awareness in the public.
I do not however advocate the taking of healthy dolphins from the wild.
Thank you,
Erik Lief Miles, St. Thomas

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Keeping our community informed is our top priority.
If you have a news tip to share, please call or text us at 340-228-8784.

Support local + independent journalism in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Unlike many news organizations, we haven't put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as accessible as we can. Our independent journalism costs time, money and hard work to keep you informed, but we do it because we believe that it matters. We know that informed communities are empowered ones. If you appreciate our reporting and want to help make our future more secure, please consider donating.

1 COMMENT