On the night of 11 January 2013, off the Kona coast of Hawaii's Big Island, a bottlenose dolphin with fishing line wrapped around its left pectoral fin swam up to a group of scuba divers. Dive leader Keller Laros cut away most of the line and pulled a hook from the fin while camerawoman Martina Wing kept filming. The dolphin then swam off and was not seen again. The video went viral within days and is still one of the most watched wildlife encounters online.
Here is what the footage shows, what scientists say about whether the dolphin was really "asking for help", and what you should do if you ever meet an entangled marine animal yourself.
What happened during the night dive
Laros was guiding a night dive at a site near Kailua-Kona that is famous for manta rays, which gather after dark to feed on plankton drawn in by divers' lights. He is a veteran of more than 10,000 dives and the founder of the Manta Pacific Research Foundation, a small group that studies the local mantas.
Partway through the dive a single bottlenose dolphin, an animal up to about three metres long, appeared in the lights. Divers at the site had seen dolphins before, but usually in small groups. This one was alone, and it came unusually close.
Laros saw that a fishing hook was lodged in its left pectoral fin. Monofilament line ran from the animal's mouth, through the hook and around the fin, trailing along its body. According to NBC News, he spent about three minutes face to face with the dolphin and roughly eight minutes in total with it, using small scissors and dive tools he carried in his wetsuit. Another dive guide helped clear line from beneath the fin.
Watch the rescue
Several moments in the clip explain why it spread so quickly. The dolphin repeatedly returns to Laros instead of fleeing, at one point surfacing to breathe and then swimming straight back down to him. It also holds fairly still and rolls slightly while he works near the hook. Laros later described the experience as a kind of relationship, saying he believed the animal came to the divers because it had a problem.
The original eight-minute video passed half a million views within a few days of being posted, and shorter edits shared by sites such as Higher Perspective reportedly reached millions more.
Did the dolphin really ask for help?
It is tempting to read the video as a dolphin deliberately seeking a human rescuer. Scientists who looked at it were more cautious. In a piece for the radio programme Radiolab, dolphin researcher Justin Gregg was cited as finding the behaviour odd: the animal approached boldly, came very close and tolerated being touched, which suggested to him that it had little previous experience of people. The same piece raised another possibility, drawing on animal behaviour scientist Clive Wynne, that the dolphin had been rubbing against a nearby mooring line and may have treated the divers in a similar way, as something to scrape the irritation against.
Neither explanation makes the encounter less remarkable. Bottlenose dolphins are curious, social and capable of learning from humans, and an animal in discomfort approaching divers repeatedly is unusual. What the footage cannot show is what the dolphin understood or intended. The honest answer is that we do not know, and probably never will for this individual.
Dolphins, intelligence and the Cambridge Declaration
The video arrived during a period of growing public interest in animal minds. On 7 July 2012 a group of neuroscientists meeting at the University of Cambridge issued the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. It stated that humans are not unique in having the neurological structures that generate consciousness, and that all mammals and birds, along with many other creatures including octopuses, possess them as well.
The declaration is often summarised as scientists "proving" that animals are conscious. It is better read as a statement of expert opinion: the brain machinery associated with awareness is widespread, so it is reasonable to assume many animals have experiences that matter. It does not say that a dolphin's inner life is the same as a human's, and it does not by itself change any law. In 2024 a larger group of researchers went further with the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, which argues there is at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates and in many invertebrates.
India's 2013 stand against dolphin shows
Older versions of this story claimed that India had declared dolphins "non-human persons". That overstates what happened. In May 2013 India's Ministry of Environment and Forests told state governments not to approve dolphinariums or allow cetaceans to be captured or imported for entertainment. Its circular said it was morally unacceptable to keep dolphins captive for shows, and it noted that some scientists argue their intelligence means they should be seen as non-human persons. It did not grant dolphins legal personhood.
India is not alone. Several countries and regions, including Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Switzerland and parts of Belgium, have banned or heavily restricted dolphinariums, and Canada passed a 2019 law ending the breeding and acquisition of captive whales and dolphins.
Fishing gear: the everyday threat
The dolphin in Kona was hurt by something ordinary: a single hook and a length of line. Discarded or lost fishing gear injures and kills marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds around the world. Monofilament is strong, nearly invisible underwater and persists in the sea for many years. As an animal grows or swims, a loop of line can tighten and cut into flesh or restrict movement, which is why an entanglement that looks minor can become serious over weeks.
Simple habits help. Anglers can collect and recycle old line, check gear for frayed sections, and avoid casting near dolphins or turtles. Beach and reef clean-ups regularly pull large amounts of line from coastal waters.
What to do if you see an entangled marine animal
Laros was an experienced professional, and the dolphin approached him. That is not a template for the rest of us. NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary asks the public not to enter the water or try to free entangled animals themselves, because disentanglement is dangerous for both people and animals and people have died attempting it with large whales. Instead:
- In Hawaii, call the NOAA Marine Mammal Hotline on 1-888-256-9840, or hail the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF channel 16 if you cannot call. Elsewhere, contact your local stranding or wildlife rescue network.
- Note the location, time, direction of travel and what the gear looks like.
- Take photos or video from a safe, legal distance.
- Stay nearby at a distance if it is safe, so responders can find the animal.
Trained teams carry specialist tools and know how to cut gear without causing new injuries. Your report gives them the best chance of reaching an animal like the Kona dolphin in time.
Sources: NBC News: Diver who saved dolphin; Radiolab: Fin bump across the divide; Wikipedia: Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness; Wikipedia: Dolphinarium; NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Sanctuary: How you can help. Video filmed by Martina Wing; story first shared via Higher Perspective.
Related:- Bottlenose Dolphin Signature Whistles and Individual Recognition
- India Declares Dolphins "Non-Human Persons", Dolphin shows BANNED.
- Gray whale dies bringing us a message — with stomach full of plastic trash
- A Short Environmental Film About Consumption and Its Consequences
- Bolivia Gives Legal Rights To The Earth
- Earth is Alive! Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for!
Wow! Cool
ReplyDelete