posted November 23, 2004 11:41 PM         

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Dolphins save swimmers from shark
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Posted: 0329 GMT (1129 HKT)
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/11/22/nz.dolphins.reut/index.html

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Reuters) -- A pod of dolphins circled protectively round a group of New Zealand swimmers to fend off an attack by a great white shark, media reported on Tuesday.

Lifesavers Rob Howes, his 15-year-old daughter Niccy, Karina Cooper and Helen Slade were swimming 100 metres (300 feet) off Ocean Beach near Whangarei on New Zealand's North Island when the dolphins herded them -- apparently to protect them from a shark.

"They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," Howes told the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).

Howes tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back just as he spotted a three-meter (nine feet) great white shark swimming towards the group.

"I just recoiled. It was only about 2 meters (6 feet) away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face," Howes said.

"They had corralled us up to protect us," he said.

The lifesavers spent the next 40 minutes surrounded by the dolphins before they could safely swim back to shore.

The incident happened on October 30, but the lifesavers kept the story to themselves until now.

Environment group Orca Research said dolphins attacked sharks to protect themselves and their young, so their actions in protecting the lifesavers was understandable.

posted November 24, 2004 07:02 AM         

such beautiful creatures.

posted December 07, 2004 07:47 PM         

Talk about synchonisity. I read this, and then saw all this stuff about dolphins on TV. These guys spent 20 years studying dolphins and were learning how to communicate with them. They even mimic us - one floated from the surface to th bottom like a human - feet first. When we communicated, they repeated the words with more info - like they were trying to teach us. Imagina talking to a dolphin! Do you guys remember what Linda said about dolphins and the history of Earth? That if you had a water burth, and spent a lot of the time of the pregnancy in the water with dolphins, that they teach the child, and the child can walk earlier etc. Just such amazing creatures.

posted December 07, 2004 08:05 PM         

quote:

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Visit Shark Bay in Western Australia to see fossil mounds of algae which were among the earliest living things on Earth. Seeing them, I can marvel at how human thought transcends the here and now.They act as a ruler of time stretching back into the past"

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And then I saw on TV about how dolphins were eaten by sharks and to ignore people who claim that dolphins scare sharks, but like it's Shark Bay! Of course there'd be lots of sharks, and yeah, understandably they might eat dolphins, but to say to ignore dolphin stories helping people is pretty stupid. They protect people by their agression and speed and numbers. The doco showed how they swarmed around a pregnant dolphin to prtect it during birth. Even the camera men were barked at and had to leave the area. I mean, I don't know what damage a dolphin could do to a shark, but I don't doubt that they could be agressive to sharks.