Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates

Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates

news.xinhuanet.com

BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.

The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's.

The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while

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Im not sure if the dolphins knew what they were doing but from other stories ive heard about dolphins they are pretty smart.. maybe they can defeat the taliban. How american of me to try to weaponize dolphins! What do you guys think... did the dolphins know what they were doing?Its sad to think that people go out and kill these cool animals.

news.xinhuanet.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Ever seen Johnny Mnemonic?

I think the dolphins might have been reacting to a perceived
threat, nothing more.

Dolphins are amazing. Their eyes are so intellegent. I think there is a lot more in nature then we are taught to believe. My dog can sense when me or my g/f are sick, im sure of it. She gets all cuddly and will not leave your side. Its us humans that are the unintellegent ones most time.

I want to know how a bunch of dolphins can effectively "block" a ship. They arent exactly like rock or coral. Lets throw a bunch of hams and turkey into the water and see if we just plow a boat through the alleged 'barrier.'

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


They are using skiffs, hardly a ship. I figure a few dolphins, which I am assuming these are bottlenose, Weigh around 200kg. A few rams to the side of a skiff or thousands of 200kg dolphins definately will block a skiff IMO.

-Kdial1

[edit on 14-4-2009 by kdial1]

Wow what a manifest, a divine intervention

I found this a couple of weeks ago, homage to these amazing creatures

You never know the US military has been training and using dolphins for years.
Maybe the Chinese have their own trained dolphin teams?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a456e60e9007.jpg[/atsimg]

The dolphins had no idea what they were doing... The Chinese on the other hand knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote this "holier than thou" press release.

The Chinese are capitalising on this making headline news across the world, and gloating that their ships made it through the area unscathed.

Pure sensationalist tabloid journalism from our Asian cousins, that's all this is IMO.

While I won't question the fact that dolphins are amazingly intelligent creatures, I have no doubt that they have little concern about the affairs of Chinese merchant ships and pirates and such.

To me, this reeks on an attempt by the Chinese state controlled media put their own little spin on the media blitz surrounding the recent wave of attacks by Somali pirates. This sort of sensationalist journalism runs rampant in the Chinese media.

Originally posted by Pr0t0
Pure sensationalist tabloid journalism from our Asian cousins, that's all this is IMO.

You took the words right out of my mouth..

Blatant state sponsored propaganda written by someone with an overactive imagination and very little grasp on the real world where thousands and thousands of dolphins don't set out to block pirates from attacking merchant ships that are already backed up by the Chinese fleet.

It would be more believable if they said the dolphins had fin mounted rocket launchers and blew the pirates out of the water.

Dolphins are amazing!

I agree that animals can sense pending danger. Just before the Tsunami hit south east asia a couple of years ago, animals were seen leaving lowland areas and heading into the hills.

But the idea of using dolphins (and other animals) for military reasons is not new.

Taken from;
Ten Second Response, Fast Facts on the Environment
www.nationalcenter.org...

DATE: March 31, 2003

BACKGROUND: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, has released the following statement:

"The Pentagon recently announced that in addition to troops, the U.S. military is using chickens, dogs, dolphins, pigeons, and sea lions to fight the war against Iraq. The Navy is using dolphins and sea lions to intercept terrorists and mines in the Persian Gulf, and the Army and the Marines are using chickens and pigeons to detect the presence of biological and chemical weapons and dogs to detect weapons and rescue troops.

Mod Edit: No Quote/Plagiarism – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 14-4-2009 by Crakeur]

reply to post by 8bitbreakfast


Dolphins are known to be friendly animals, it is much more likely that they were simply being friendly and putting on a show.

The chances of a Dolphin "sensing" what is going on are so slim as to be ridiculous to consider. And why would they choose a side to protect and assist anyway?

Crazy.

Dolphins, while amazing animals deserving of our protection and appreciation, are not psychic as far as I am aware.
The story is either complete disinfo propaganda to disguise something (this is China remember), or exaggerated and elaborated upon to make out that something remarkable happened.

ketchupandcurry.blogspot.com...

have a look at this guys!!

dolphins have ben known to save human lives in the past, many times, so many are quick to assume that just because we dont fully understand the intelligence of dolphins that they are uncapable of emotion and thought!

all im saying is dont just assume that becuase were the dominant race on the planet that thre arnt species out there that are smarter than us!!!

peace xx

I suppose this will fall on deaf ears, for the most part.

The notion that dolphins would want anything to do with a potential conflict at sea is foolish. But there are those who will use this for many 'porposes' (sorry ).

Chinese - propaganda
Animal Rights Activists - propaganda
US - propaganda


Let's be a little more realistic. K?

I think the dolphins knew what they were doing all right! I think they just said enough to any more pointless violence and no to our fights, skirmishes, wars and militia groups. Really good dolphins! They have had enough of our BS!

Military has been training dolphins, seals, Sea Lion, orcas ( killer whales )and beluga whales for retrieval, survelliance, and other purposes.

There are 4 Marina Mammal systems in the military. Some of the whales have recovered torpedos from depths of over 2000 feet. Dolphins are still actively employed in defense of Iraq.

ALthough not publically disclosed, it is probably that they are trained to intercept human intruders.

Imagine seeing a Killer whale coming at you with US marines tattoo.

Originally posted by stereovoyaged
My dog can sense when me or my g/f are sick, im sure of it. She gets all cuddly and will not leave your side.

That's interesting
My bird can tell when my g/f is about to start an argument with me or nag and it creates a smokescreen distraction allowing me to either escape or distract her enough to make her forget about it.

Great article btw
Dolphins are truly amazing
Some species, once they kiss, they become very loyal life-partners
we can learn alot from them

What a crock!

Thousands of dolphins?! Come on. If there were thousands of dolphins, they were probably fleeing the Chinese ships and just happened to block some inbound pirates on their way out. Dolphins are very smart, and probably recognize the Chinese flags. They know the Chinese eat anything with flippers and they were all in iminent danger of being hanged upside down next to somebody's cat in the Chinese market place.

reply to post by Hallberg Rassy


now this i dont understand! why would dolphins be protecting iraq! btw not that i have against iraq or any of its citizens! i just dont understand this theory that dolphins are protecting iraq in a way! i mean irag has no ties to the sea, they have no folklore or legends that tie them to the sea, they dont even have a coast ( and i apologise if my naive amount of knowldge of where countires are has mede me look silly! but im pretty sure iraq isnt a big port sort of place ).

all im saying is dont knock what we dont know! too many poeple have jumped up and said " no that cant be true " with no proof! at the same tmie people have jumped up and said it is true, again with no proof! so basically knowone knows for sure, there is no scientific or physical proof to allo either theorys to be true, so people all im saying is open your mind a little and let it tell what it sees, because that is what makes you who you are!!!!!!!

peace friends xx