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| Title: | Psychic Phenomena |
| Notice: | Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing |
| Moderator: | JARETH::PAINTER |
|
| Created: | Wed Jan 22 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Tue May 27 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2143 |
| Total number of notes: | 41773 |
1239.0. "The Dolphin Project" by USAT05::KASPER (Way up here, you can see brand new) Thu Apr 12 1990 18:25
I just wanted to share something I participated in last weekend in Savannah,
Georgia. It's called the "Dolphin Project". I've included a couple articles
that discuss the details. Briefly, it is an all volunteer effort to compile
an accurate dolphin census off the east coast of the US. It is a ten year
effort that scientists say will be invaluable in helping develop preservation
programs to protect them. This past weekend there were about 35 boats with
anywhere from 3 to 8 people each, depending upon size. The different
volunteer duties are, team leader, data recorder, photographer and skipper.
I could go on for pages talking about how wonderful it was to be near these
beautiful creatures and to know something was finally being done to help
them. The team I was part of counted 33, most of which swam alongside the
boat. One poked its head up and tried to look in the boat, then gently
submerged and gracefully swam away. It was a very moving experience for me.
Anyway, I am posting this note to make people aware of the Dolphin Project.
If any of you can get down to this area (they soon hope to expand the
project to cover more of the coastline) and want to participate, I'm sure
you'll find it a very rewarding. If you can't make it but want to help
via membership you can do that too. Here's the address:
The Dolphin Project
PO Box 724206
Atlanta, Ga 30339
If you sent them a note, they will send you a membership packet (no
obligation).
Terry
The Miami Herald, Friday, April 6, 1990
Volunteers Celebrate a Year of Tracking Dolphins
A volunteer group that has spent a full year tracking dolphins off the
Georgia coast - an effort hailed by scientists and conservationists -
plans to celebrate that milestone with a modest weekend barbecue.
Then it's off to begin a second year of work.
"We will have a bit of celebration," said Beau Cutts, president of The
Dolphin Project. "But though complete, it's our first year out of ten, So
there;s much work ahead."
The nonprofit group bills itself as the most comprehensive dolphin
research program in the world. With its 525 volunteers, it has counted more
than 2,000 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins so far in the tidal rivers, creeks
and sounds off Georgia.
The amateur researchers are trying to compile a count of East Coast
dolphins, track their birth rates and migratory patterns, record their
behavior and put together a photographic account of the mammals' lives.
At the end of ten years, Cutts said, the group expects to have a thick
pile of data that can be used by scientists and governments to develop
preservation strategies.
Originally inspired by concern over a disease that cut the East Coast
population by 50% from 1987 to 1988, Cutts, a Georgia State University
journalism professor, also became a vocal champion of voluntarism.
"The key to our success is the willingness of ordinary people - most of us
are not scientists - to pay money to go to work to help out the dolphins,"
Cutts said Thursday from his home in Marietta.
"When I first started, I had a dozen or so people," Cutts said. "People
are looking for something to do. It's great to send $25 to a worthwhile
organization and get a newsletter, but here we're doing something. The
point is, here's a specific and worthwhile thing that citizens can do."
Dolphin Project volunteers pay $25 to join and then help foot the bill
for additional costa, such a fuel, equipment and film. For instance, the
187 volunteers going on this weekend's survey will pay $45 each to
participate, according to Cutts.
"If a government agency were conducting this weekend's survey, the cost
to the taxpayers would be at least $130,000," he said.
Charles W. Potter of the Smithsonian Institution's Marine Mammal Program,
one of seven scientific advisors to the Dolphin Project, said the volunteer
effort has provided a great opportunity to help scientists while getting
people in touch with their role in the environment.
"This arrangement also provides the biologist and administrator the
manpower to accomplish specific tasks they might not be able to do due to
funding or personnel limitation," Potter said.
Despite the numbers recorded in its quarterly survey, Cutts said the
number if dolphins in Georgia waters is unknown because of duplicate
sightings.
But it is hoped that the thousands of photographs taken during the
surveys, which identify individual dolphins, will eventually produce an
accurate count, he said.
When a dolphin's dorsal fin emerges from the water, it leaves a unique
path that serves as a sort of "fingerprint" to identify the dolphins, Cutts
said. "That's when the cameras click," he said, adding that the volunteers
use the data and location of the photos to follow migratory patterns.
The work is precise but not difficult, Cutts said. It is also fun.
"We have photographs and videotape of an extremely unusual dolphin
activity called 'mudding,'" Cutts said. "They work as a team to get lunch.
They will herd their food fish, often mullet, literally drive them up on the
land. Then the dolphins come up on the mud and chow down.
"It's faster that the drive-in window at McDonald's."
*****************
The New York Times, Monday July 17, 1989
Volunteers Sail for a Dolphin Census
Savannah, Ga
As 28 boats crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean near here, a crackle of static
from a Coast Guard radio heralded another small scientific triumph: "We've
spotted a good-sized pod of dolphins."
The excited notification of the discovery of a group of bottlenose
dolphins was from one of the more than 200 volunteers who converged on
Savannah Saturday and today to conduct a citizen-organized scientific study,
counting the marine mammals to determine how many remained after two years
of mass dolphin deaths.
Unlike some other volunteer science projects, like archaeological digs
where experts call in lay people to help, the dolphin count was organized by
non-scientists who brought in experts to advise them. The organizers hope
to continue the survey for ten years, taking to the water one weekend every
three months.
In the work-a-day world the group's officers sell air conditioners, teach
journalism, service computers or run their own businesses. The 208 people
come from several states, and their aim is to produce the first accurate
picture of the dolphin population.
"There has been no comparable study of dolphins that I am aware of," said
Gerald Scott, a scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service who is
one of the advisors.
The 28 survey teams covered 500 square miles of open ocean and Intracostal
Waterway, about one-third of the Georgia coast.
The Dolphin Project was formed after a group of Georgians read news
reports of dolphins dying by the hundreds along the Atlantic coast. Since
June, 1987, more than 740 dead bottlenose dolphins have washed up on the
east coast beaches, according to a report prepared in May for the House
Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee.
The report attributed the deaths to a naturally occurring poison produced
by the abnormal growth of certain varieties of ocean algae. The report,
prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, estimated
that as many as half of all East Coast dolphins had been killed by this "red
tide". But the scientists were forced to admit that their estimate
represented only a guess, since there has been no accurate census.
"When we first got together, we asked the scientists if there was
anything we could do besides political activism and personal education,"
said Beau Cutts, a journalism instructor at Georgia State University who is
president of the Dolphin Project. "And they said, 'Well, since you ask,
here's some work we need done, but can't afford.'"
Charles W. Potter, collection manager for marine mammals at the
Smithsonian Institution, estimated that the survey proposed by the Dolphin
Project would have cost the Government several million dollars if it had
been conducted by scientists.
Mr. Cutts said the budget for the first weekend's survey was $9,000, much
of that to reimburse boat owners for fuel. He added that the size of the
group had more than doubled in less than a month. Full results of this
weekend's count are to be tabulated over the next few days; in the first day
the group reported more than 500 spottings, but more analysis was needed to
determine how many individual dolphins that represented.
The volunteers, including the boat owners, traveled to Savannah at their
own expense and each contributed $50 to participate. "I've been involved
with the Sierra Club and Greenpeace," said Julie D. Howell, a 31-year-old
assistant to a corporate vice chairman from Atlanta. "The only thing I
could do for them is send them a check and write my Congressman. I wanted
to become more involved. This is a project where the average Joe can
participate and help on an environmental issue."
Richard I. Staiman, a physician and lawyer who works for the Georgia
Department of Human Resources, said he volunteered the use of his boat, in
part, "Because I was interested in meeting some people who wanted to do
something for the environment."
While the Government has spent nothing on the project, some agencies have
agreed to assist. The National Marine Fisheries Service arranges for
several hundred dollars worth of navigation charts and the Coast Guard set
up a radio monitoring station, "Dolphin Control," to help coordinate the
survey teams. The Marine Mammal Commission sent an advisor to develop
scientific procedures for reporting data.
The volunteers were taught how to collect data on groups of dolphins,
called pods. Each time a pod was sighted, volunteers noted longitude,
latitude and time, the depth of water, the number of adults and juveniles
and any unusual behavior. Team members also tried to photograph each
dolphin's dorsal fin so that individual animals could later be identified
by its shape and by the pattern of nicks along the fin's back edge.
Dr. Scott conceded that it may be months or years before advisors can
determine whether the volunteers are able to supply dependable data. "this
is an experiment," he said at a training session in May. "We are prepared
to give them guidance. We don't know yet what we will get."
******************
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1239.1 | Fan mail from some Flounder? | DNEAST::BERLINGER_MA | LIFE IN THE ASTRAL PLANE | Fri Apr 13 1990 12:57 | 8 |
| While driving in to work this morning I heard a news report
that said two of the major tuna fish packing corporations in the United
States have just (finaly) agreed to adopt fishing methods which do not
endanger the dolphin. Bravo!
Later,
Mark
|
| 1239.2 | Which ones? | ECADSR::KINZELMAN | Paul Kinzelman | Fri Apr 13 1990 13:11 | 2 |
| Do you know which ones? I'd be nice to buy tuna from those companies and
stay away from the others.
|
| 1239.3 | These three... | EXIT26::SAARINEN | | Fri Apr 13 1990 13:19 | 11 |
| Starkist has made a decision yesterday to no longer to buy Tuna from
fisherman who use the "purse seining" net method, which is like an
underwater drawstring net. Where tuna and dolphins swim together,
the net captures the fish, dolphins need to surface to breathe air
and either drown or are injuried.
Both Bumblebee and Van Kamp Seafood of St. Louis also will soon make
similiar announcements.... 'bout time!
-Arthur
|
| 1239.4 | | HKFINN::STANLEY | What a long strange trip its been... | Fri Apr 13 1990 13:35 | 3 |
| At last I can buy tuna again... its been a long time.
Mary
|
| 1239.5 | Maguro, yum yum | ORCAS::MCKINNON_JA | | Sun Apr 15 1990 11:50 | 1 |
| I think Chicken-of-the-Sea is included in the list.
|
| 1239.6 | Dolphin Connection | GLDOA::PAGEL | Peekin' under the rocks ... | Mon Oct 29 1990 12:46 | 39 |
| Just in case any of you happen to be in the Detroit-metro area on
November 29 ...
The Interspecies Connection presents:
THE DOLPHIN CONNECTION
Amy Frandon and Leslie Ritter, vocalists
Kim Rosen, dolphin workshop facilitator
Cathie Malach, pianist
Slides, Music, Lecture, Visualization
An exploration of the dolphin-human connection as a transformal force
on individual, communal, and planetary levels.
8:00 p.m., Thursday, November 29, 1990
Michigan Theatre, 603 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tickets $8, students $5 - Available at Crazy Wisdon Bookstore, Earth
Wisdom Music, Falling Water Books, Mayflower Books (in Berkeley) and
the Michigan Theatre.
I plan to be there, so if anyone wants to car pool, just give me a call
8-)
C-2
|
| 1239.7 | a true story... | CARTUN::BERGGREN | Go now and do heart work... | Mon Oct 29 1990 14:47 | 61 |
| I was in about forty feet of water, alone. I knew I should not
have gone alone, but I was very competent and just took a chance.
There was not much current, and the water was so warm and clear and
enticing. But when I got a cramp, I realized at once how foolish I
was.
I was not very alarmed at this point, but was completely doubled
up with stomach cramp. I tried to remove my weight belt, but I was
so doubled up I could not get to the catch. I was sinking and began
to feel more frightened, unable to move. I could see my watch and
knew that there was only a little more time on the tank before I
would be finished with breathing!
I tried to massage my abdomen. I wasn't wearing a wet suit, but
couldn't straighten out and couldn't get to the cramped muscles with
my hands.
I thought, "I can't go like this! I have things to do!" I just
couldn't die anonymously this way, with no one to even know what
happened to me. I called out in my mind, "Somebody, something,
help me!"
I was not prepared for what happened. Suddenly I felt a prodding
from behind me under the armpit. I thought, "Oh no, sharks!" I felt
real terror and despair. But my arm was being lifted forcibly.
Around into my field of vision came an eye -- the most marvelous
eye I could ever imagine. I swear it was smiling. It was the eye of
a big dolphin. Looking into that eye, I knew I was safe.
It moved farther forward, nudging under, and hooked its dorsal
fin under my armpit with my arm over its back. I relaxed, hugging
it, flooded with relief. I felt that the animal was conveying
security to me, that it was healing me as well as lifting me toward
the surface. My stomach cramp went away as we ascended, and I
relaxed with security, but I felt very strongly that it healed me too.
At the surface, it drew me all the way in to shore. It took me
into water so shallow that I began to be concerned for it, that it
would be beached, and I pushed it back a little deeper, where it
waited, watching me, I guess to see if I was all right.
It felt like another lifetime. When I took off the weight belt
and oxygen tank, I just took everything off and went naked back into
the ocean to the dolphin. I felt so light and free and alive, and
just wanted to play in the sun and the water, in all that freedom.
The dolphin took me back out and played around in the water with me.
I noticed that there were a lot of dolphins there, father out.
After awhile it brought me back to shore. I was very tired then,
almost collapsing, and he made sure I was safe in the shallowest
water. Then he turned sideways with one eye looking into mine. We
stayed that way for what seemed like a very long time, timeless I
guess, in a trance almost, with personal thoughts of the past going
through my mind.
Then he made just one sound and went out to join the others, and
all of them left.
As related in "Natural Compassion, the first chapter of _How Can I Help_
an *excellent* book authored and edited by Paul Gorham and Ram Dass.
|
| 1239.8 | Jolly Mon | RAVEN1::PINION | Hard Drinking Calypso Poet | Tue Oct 30 1990 03:00 | 7 |
| Is this book,"How Can I Help", solely about dolphins or is that
just one story in a collection? Sounds like the kind thing I would
love! Also, this story reminds me of Jolly Mon; a Jimmy Buffett song
and childrens story
Capt. Scott
|
| 1239.9 | Take this book along while you sail your seas | CARTUN::BERGGREN | Go now and do heart work... | Wed Oct 31 1990 10:04 | 42 |
| Capt. Scott,
_How Can I Help?_ is just one story in a collection throughout the
book. From the back cover:
"Not a day goes by without our being called upon to help one anohter --
at home, at work, on the street, on the phone... We do what we can.
Yet so much comes up to complicate this natural response: 'Will I have
what it takes?' 'How much is enough?' 'How can I deal with suffering?'
'And what really helps, anyway?'
In this practical helper's companion, the authors explore a path
through these confusions, and provid support and inspiration for us in
our efforts as members of the helping professions, as volunteers, as
community activists, or simply as friends and family trying to meet
each other's needs."
Here's one more short story:
The doctor's had just about given up. Forget it for having any will to
live. I can't begin to describe the despair. Beyond the relentless
physical pain, there was this utter emptiness of heart and soul.
Eachmorning felt like waking up in hell -- can you understand that?
Every morning, feeling that way, like it was the first time?
And yet people came and called and cared and stayed. And each gesture
came to feel almost miraculous to me. And there were moments when I
would say, "You just don't know what this means to me."
And they didn't! They couldn't, or wouldn't. Isn't that wild? They
really didn't see it. They really didn't recognize just how much their
ordinary expressions of love would do for me.
On the one hand, I thought it was wonderful that they wouldn't make
such a big deal out of something that seemed so simple for them, just
showing up. But on the other hand, I wanted to shake them and say, "Do
you know how beautiful you are! Won't you see?" As if they were
angels who had forgotten.
I tell you, I would have died but for the friendships.
Karen
|
| 1239.10 | Indeed, indeed. | CGVAX2::PAINTER | And on Earth, peace... | Wed Oct 31 1990 10:21 | 4 |
|
Spot on, Karen.
Cindy
|
| 1239.11 | "Helm, hard to port, set course book store" ;-) | RAVEN1::PINION | Hard Drinking Calypso Poet | Fri Nov 02 1990 04:19 | 6 |
| Thanks Karen! It *does* sound my kind of book. That last little
story reminds me of when my mother almost died in a wreck when I was a
child. I'm sure I'll be adding it to my collection. I understand what
you mean by how much "being there" means! Thanks again!
Capt. Scott
|
| 1239.12 | | CARTUN::BERGGREN | Feel the magic in his music...? | Fri Nov 02 1990 12:45 | 8 |
| Captain, :-)
Let me know if you have any trouble obtaining a copy of _How Can I
Help?_. I'll be glad to send you one if you do!
Wishing you many enchanting adventures,
Karen
|
| 1239.13 | The Delphys | GLDOA::PAGEL | Peekin' under the rocks ... | Fri Nov 30 1990 11:13 | 72 |
| Last night I attended the Interspecies Connection's presentation,
"Delphys: The Dolphin Connection, a celebration of the human-dolphin
connection and what it can teach us about our human-human
connections."
It was *wonderful* and I highly recommend the experience. They
called their program a "Theatre Within" ... it contained guided
visualizations, wonderful music and songs, and slides of
people/dolphins participating in their workshops.
For more information about workshops, inner theatre, etc. contact Kim
Rosen, PO Box 174, Bearsville, NY 12409 914/679-7591. (There's a weekend
workshop coming up January 4-6 in Pittsburgh.)
From the program:
The dolphins reflect to us a vision of the Self without fear:
clear, spontaneous, and flowing with feeling, that beckons from
the oceans of our unconscious inviting us to dive deep. Hundreds
of lives have been changed by this inter-species vision quest.
For allowing a dolphin to touch your heart is like falling in
love. That first spark of Eros is given freely and then you have
a choice. You can let it go saying that it is not real, or "too
much," the risk too great, the work too hard. Or you can choose
to "go the distance," allowing that spark to lead you into areas
of yourself that you might otherwise never have touched.
-- Kim Rosen
____________________
The Oceans are Calling
-- Kim Rosen
I stand on the shore as you call from the ocean -
The fear that surrounds me astounds me; I weep.
From liquid dark reaches, a light shines right through me -
I long to respond to this call from the deep.
Who are you that beckon so sweetly from darkness?
Who are you that call me by name from the sea?
Who are you that smile through the tears of creation?
And why does my heart long to remember thee?
The Greeks called you Delphys, the womb of the Mother
Apollo so feared you, he sought mastery,
Your beauty and freedom he tried to imprison,
And still to this day, he lays waste to the sea.
For deep in your waters, he meets his own shadow
The movement of oceans that melts sword and shield.
And naked we enter the womb of creation
A power so vast, it insists that we yield.
The oceans are calling with millions of voices
The oceans are calling, it's time to go home
The womb of the earth would consume and rebirth you
So let yourself die - you will not be alone.
And there in the midst of my - once again - darkness
I tenderly open to what lies within
No sea monsters lurk there, instead my own feelings
Embrace me, enfold me, insist I give in.
Who, called by a dolphin in the womb of the earth?
Apollo surrender! The dolphin so tender
Will guide you to death and on through to rebirth.
___________________
Cindy-2
|
| 1239.14 | | CARTUN::BERGGREN | Mutating homo sapiens at large | Fri Nov 30 1990 11:22 | 5 |
| Wonderful C-2!
Thanks dolphin sista.
Kb.:-)
|
| 1239.15 | it says alot | ROYALT::NIKOLOFF | Behaving as if God mattered | Fri Nov 30 1990 11:48 | 7 |
|
Cindy-2
Thank *you* so much for typing that ....it was beautiful!
wow, Meredith
|
| 1239.16 | beautiful | ATSE::FLAHERTY | Strength lies in the quiet mind | Fri Nov 30 1990 13:06 | 6 |
| Another WOW - very inspiring, Cindy-2.
Thanks
Ro
|