Dolphin Diaries

Where Can You Get This Book ?.

The book could have used a lot of editing. It's twice as long as it should be. The subject is incredibly fascinating. But I soon realized I did not have the product of a talented writer in my hands and started skimming through the off tangent ruminating which occurred frequently. The book contains more of the author's musings than of her descriptions of dolphin behavior. How do dolphins use their superior intelligence to deal with sharks? Surely Denise observed these behaviors. But the reader doesn't get to read about them. How often do dolphins surface to breath? I have no clue. Apparently they don't sleep but instead slow down. How does this work? Is their breathing managed autonomically then? We are never clued in. I don't have any more sense what dolphins are communicating to each other after slogging through all the pages. A rudimentary 2-way communication device lasted for maybe one of the author's 25 +/- seasons of field research. Why was so little progress achieved? If dolphins are so smart and bonded so closely to her then why did they not attempt to teach their forms of communication to Ms. Herzing? In 25 years did she never experience one of them slowing down their vocalizations and repeating their content over and over as a father would to his infant or a language teacher to her pupil?

I did learn that dolphins are extraordinarily promiscuous. But there was no description or discussion of any possible manifestations of emotional expression in their sexuality. Is that because the author observed none? She never says.

When you are as close to a subject as Ms. Herzing has been it must be very difficult to step back and figure out what it is you consider mundane but that will be interesting to the reader. This is another area where a strong editor could have helped.

I was left ultimately to my own devices to try to make sense of what the hell is going on down there below the waves. Here's my takeaway: Dolphins seem to organize in clans like human tribes with no technology and no written language, isolated from civilization. Curious and interesting to interact with for a while I suppose. But ultimately just primitive. Give up your life to find this out? Ouch.

This book is important in three distinct ways. It first shows that in order to do the kind of solid science that lets us understand dolphins, one has to commit to years of difficult, careful, patient research in the wild. Herzing's accomplishment on this score alone places her on the same tier as such scientists as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Cynthia Moss. Second, the book provides an impressive amount of evidence for the richness and complexity of dolphin social life and social intelligence. Herzing has been privileged to be allowed by this cetacean community to learn more about who they are and how they live, and the importance of the information that she conveys to the rest of us cannot be overstated. Third, and most important, the ethical implications of Herzing's work are clear, profound and troubling. Her research provides important support for those who argue that dolphins are "nonhuman persons" whose "rights" should be recognized. Any reader who reaches the end of the book and is not convinced that the willful slaughter of dolphins, their preventable deaths in connection with human fishing and the captivity of dolphins for any purpose are ethically indefensible simply wasn't paying attention to Herzing's masterful exposition.

Thomas White, Fellow, Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and author of IN DEFENSE OF DOLPHINS.