Human-Dolphin Partnership Reserve 84
ahbe writes that the Myanmar government recently established a protected reserve for partnering between fisherman and wild dolphins. From the article: "The fascinating partnership involves fishermen summoning the dolphins to voluntarily herd schools of fish toward the boats and awaiting nets. With the aid of the river-dwelling dolphins, the fishermen can increase the size of their catches by threefold, and the dolphins appear to benefit by more easily preying on the cornered fish in both nets and on the muddy banks of the river."
So Long (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2)
Sentient? By what definition?
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2, Interesting)
- Chimpanzees are far stronger than humans (or for that matter, mountain lions), but there is no other animal that can throw a 95 mph fastball. That is not a random skill, it was a huge evolutionary advantage for us when hunting with tools such as spears and rocks. It requires demonstrably superior skills in preconscious coordination of shoulder and arm muscles. Wat
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've always found it relatively obvious why dolphins wouldn't develop very high intelligence as corresponds to that measured by IQ, which is generally called g. We humans evolved heightened intelligence because that's what we needed to be able to adapt to rapidly changing conditions and to exploit multiple sources of food. But why would dolphins really develop both the sort of intelligence, and the limbs, needed to make and handle tools (which I think is an important part of developing the g type of intelligence as that which is seen in humans)? Their only natural predators are sharks and orcas, and they've got those pretty well covered due to their excellent teamwork skills. Those lucky bastards are practically living in paradise!
But then again, maybe we'd find that dolphins have the neccessary intelligence for toolmaking, if we just gave them some manipulators. That is to say hands.
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:5, Funny)
Dolphins are pretty smart, all right.
yes, but do they have frickin' lase... oh wait
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2, Interesting)
I would add: If we gave them hands, and turned them into animals completely inept at handling their natural environment.
Fortunately, dolphins are like fish in water (pardon the pun) and I really don't think they'd need to create tools since they already pretty much master their environment.
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:1)
Recently there seemed to be an article on dolphin communication http://www.dolphincommunicationproject.org/ [slashdot.org]>here.
I think we underestimate the intelligence of creatures around us constantly and don't give them enough credit as is.
And Gee who is more intelligent, they get to play with each other, eat, sleep hang out and
That's it for us monkeys! (Score:4, Funny)
Be glad that they didn't evolve in such a manner, or we would be screwed [theonion.com]. Start practicing your echolocation as soon as possible!
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:3, Interesting)
Case in point, you train a dolphin that they have to put two balls into a hole within 30 seconds of eachother in orde
Man had always assumed... (Score:1)
Smarter or not, dolphins have it right.
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2, Insightful)
You do realise that this type of partnership doesn't demonstrate any special intelligence, don't you? Farmers have been using dogs to herd sheep for hundreds of years, but I don't see anybody suggesting that dogs are as intelligent as human beings.
This research (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:5, Informative)
The idea was picked up again by the Uplift trilogies by David Brin; Sundiver (1980), Startide Rising (1983) and The Uplift War (1987); Brightness Reef (1995), Infinity's Shore (1996) and Heaven's Reach (1998). I suppose that Startide Rising and The Uplift War are the most notable. Baby seals will cry if you don't buy these books, but nobody else.
And of course, we have Douglas Adams.
I wouldn't call the idea "totally gone", just not overwhelmingly popular or compelling.
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:1)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, Brin had a different idea. He acknowledged that dolphins (and chimpanzees) were less intelligent than humans. However, he suggested that if we (humans) wanted, we could deliberately push the dolphins and chimpanzees to evolve. The net result, tool wielding dolphins, was the same, but the path was different.
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2)
Re:Changing views on dolphin sentience? (Score:2)
I don't know about research that's removed hope, but I've read some that's given hope. Just recently even:
2006: Dolphins have their own names [bbc.co.uk] 2005: Dolphin Moms Teach Daughters to Use Tools [nationalgeographic.com]
However I doubt dolphins will be officially recognised as people any time soon, for any number of reasons (legal, religious, diet, greed, etc). It's hard enough convincing some folks that a
Win-win? (Score:2, Funny)
From the title, I was SURE... (Score:4, Funny)
But now that I see it's about taking advantage of nature's resources by utilizing the intelligence of others, I'm pretty sure he'd be behind it.
Re:From the title, I was SURE... (Score:1, Troll)
But now that I see it's about taking advantage of nature's resources by utilizing the intelligence of others, I'm pretty sure he'd be behind it.
I think it goes far beyond that. I think he practices it personally a lot.
No surprise (Score:4, Funny)
Re:No surprise (Score:3, Interesting)
Joking aside...
There was this documentary about how these doplhins would use a similiar tactic just instead of a net they would use the bank of the shore line and the dolphins would temporarly bank themselves to catch fish. Scientists were baffled by how this was started. Now its obvios, doplhins are just p
OMG DOLPHINS (Score:1, Insightful)
I remember seeing that because the sight of dolphins leaping up onto the muddy banks to grab stranded fish was really something! A localized group of dolphins innovating to maximize the resources available
Dolphins (Score:4, Interesting)
And I for one welcome our new cetacean overlords.
Re:Dolphins (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Dolphins (Score:1)
We need an amendment to ban Human/Dolphin marriage (Score:4, Funny)
Eve, I mean! Adam and Eve! I'm not gay. No one who's a good Christian is ever gay, understand? Ok. Just wanted to clear that up.
Too late.. (Score:1)
Like Cindy, the dolphin? (Score:2)
Funny? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Those Burmese.... (Score:4, Funny)
this is just too perverse...
Re:Those Burmese.... (Score:2, Funny)
What about this petition [petitiononline.com]
Re:Those Burmese.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Those Burmese.... (Score:1)
Re:Those Burmese.... (Score:2)
Useful to humans = No extinction (Score:4, Insightful)
There's also a small population of Irawaddy Dolphins in the Mekong river where Laos Cambodia and Thailand meet. They also have a population less than 100.
Sadly, being useful to local fishermen is probably the only way these creatures will be allowed to continue to exist, as human beings aren't really keen on cutting pollution, not building dams, and protecting the fisheries. Currently they're on parole from a very small tourism industry around viewing them.
Hopefully more fishermen will pick this up and they will become as common as elephants, water buffalo and the other useful creatures around here.
Tempting to call bullshit? (Score:4, Interesting)
Nice idea though, and it would be cool if it were true.
Re:Tempting to call bullshit? (Score:3, Funny)
How does one summon dolphins?
Why, I would believe that it is customary to use a +1 Coral Wand of Dolphin Summoning.
just need a warlock (Score:1)
Re:Tempting to call bullshit? (Score:3, Informative)
the fishermen call the dolphins by hitting oars on the water. and don't ask me why, but dolphins do come (sometimes when they are around probably)
and they donc get caught in the nets cause it's nets to catch short fishes and it's short nets. well what I saw on tv were short nets put by people, not with boats.
and it's good for the dolphins cause they do get lots of fishes in the process.
Ever more bullshit (Score:2)
Yeah, hurray, the dolphins get an easier catch for how long? 20 minutes? Than they lost even more fish due to humans taking up 3 times as much as usuall. Hurray! Good day for the dolphins.
Fucking stupid people who catch and eat fish from a fleet which is way to large for what the seas can handle. What will you do
Re:Ever more bullshit (Score:2)
Now we know what they meant (Score:1, Redundant)
Human-Dolphin partnerships? (Score:2)
Dolphin Intelligence (Score:2, Funny)
Actually, the idea of dolphins having near or equal to human intelligence was being bandied about in a pretty high profile setting as recently as 1996. Remember Seaquest DSV?
I swear, that must have been the easiest show ever to pitch:
A TV executive taps his pen absently, briefly pursing his lips as he scans Roy Scheider's name off a proposed cast list. The lights dim. A lone desk lamp throws light up on a couple of jittery, curly-haired men with bad suits and an overlarge portfolio that'll never be
Re:Dolphin Intelligence (Score:1)
Re:Dolphin Intelligence (Score:1)
Agreed on all points (especially the first season comment) but I'll go you one farther: Darwin is still the best realized "alien" crewmember in any scifi tv series. His psychology is distinctly nonhuman but comprehensible. He requires a different physical environment to live in. He communicates through a translation system, which is never treated as a babelfish-style magic bullet. Plus, he's just plain not a one to two meter tall biped. Usually, this sort of character would be treated as a pet, but whe
Re:Dolphin Intelligence (Score:1)
I call BS (Score:2)
Simply disgusting (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Simply disgusting (Score:1)
'nuff said
A return to ancient ways? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A return to ancient ways? (Score:2)