Delphi to the Rescue

Can animals help humans?

It is important to be kind to animals and help them when they are sick, injured, or need protection. But is it possible for animals to help people? Watch this video and listen to the story about a very special dolphin named Delphi.

Delphi to the Rescue
by Shari Mueller

The water around the islands was warm, the breezes blew gently across the land carrying the sweet fragrance of tropical flowers, and there was a sense of magic in the air.

Whitney had been born last spring, in the waters off Alaska. Many whales were born around the same time, and when summer was over, they all swam south together, to the warm waters around Hawaii. Whitney enjoyed the trip through the open expanse of ocean, seeing new sights and meeting new friends along the way. She was telling a new dolphin friend, “I saw the most amazing sight as we came south! There, way under the ocean, a fire burned! My mother said it was a volcano erupting on the ocean floor. She said that eventually, all the lava builds up higher and higher and forms a new island! Can you imagine that?”

“Actually, yes, I can,” replied the dolphin, whose name was Delphi, “I have lived all my life around Hawaii, and we have stories about these very islands being formed by volcanoes. In fact, there is one that is erupting now! Would you like to see it? I can take you there,” she offered.

“Oh, yes! Please show me!” Whitney was excited to see a volcano above ground. Delphi led her over many miles of ocean, swimming quickly through the water. As they neared the island with the volcano, Delphi explained, “You see that huge plume of smoke rising out of the water? When the hot lava from the volcano enters the cool water of the ocean, it creates steam.” The white, billowing pillar of steam reached high into the sky, and Whitney was amazed. “Each year,” the dolphin continued, “the lava gets deposited on this island, hardens, and adds to the size of the land. These islands started just like the underwater volcano you saw on your journey. After hundreds of years, it, too, will be an island above water that can support life. The flowers and plants that grow in the lava-rich soil are beautiful.”

“Thank you for showing this to me, Delphi!” said Whitney. “Can we go home, now? I want to tell the others about it.” Together the two new friends swam home.

Along the way, they talked about many things. Delphi was curious about the long trip the humpback whales make every year to give birth to their babies in the plankton-rich waters off the coast of Alaska. Then, when the babies have eaten and grown strong enough, the mothers and babies head back to Hawaii again to spend the winter. There they mate, and the males sing their curious and beautiful song.

Whitney wanted to know about Delphi’s life around Hawaii. Delphi explained that she lived in a group of dolphins called a pod, and they stayed there all year. Some of the older females in her pod would help when a pregnant dolphin was giving birth, by pushing the baby dolphin to the surface to take its first breath. Other dolphins enjoyed playing with humans, who lived on the islands and walked on two legs. They would swim into coves where the humans were swimming and sometimes they would get close enough to touch each other. Delphi admitted that she had never wanted to get that close, even though she was curious. This was all new to Whitney, who had never even seen a human. Just then, Delphi stopped swimming, “What was that? Did you hear something?” she asked. “Somewhere just ahead, a human is in trouble!” Delphi wondered what she should do, as she
heard the cries for help again.

“I must go and try to help that human,” said Delphi, somewhat surprising herself. “Perhaps you should stay back a bit. Your huge size might scare the human.” Whitney was curious and followed along behind at a safe distance.

Soon Delphi saw the human who was crying for help. It was a young woman who was drowning. Delphi thought the woman had been swimming too far from shore, got tired, and couldn’t get back. In a few more minutes, she would be so exhausted that she would drown. Never having been so close to a human before, Delphi approached slowly and a little nervously. She gently rubbed up against the woman to let her know she was there.

The woman must have thought she was dreaming, because she reached out and put her arms around Delphi and said, “Mother.” Delphi was amazed and delighted to discover that the human wasn’t afraid of her, and that she wasn’t afraid of the human. She knew that if the woman could hold on, she could get her close enough to shore to save her life.

They swam slowly toward the island, but the woman was too weak to hold on. She sank beneath the water as she let go of Delphi’s neck. The dolphin dove under the woman and came up under her, gently lifting her up so she could breathe, just as she had seen the old dolphin midwives help the newborn baby dolphins take their first breath. They went along like this until the water became too shallow for Delphi to go any farther.

The strange sight of a woman being carried along on the back of a dolphin had caught the attention of a crowd of people on the beach, and they rushed into the water to help the woman. As Delphi gently rolled her off into the water, she turned and headed back to the open sea where Whitney was waiting. From a safe distance, she turned to see that the people had taken the woman safely to the shore. She saw a small child standing in the shallow waves, looking at her. This child was saying “Thank you, dolphin,” in her mind, and Delphi understood. “You’re welcome!” Delphi answered back, and she knew the child heard her. As Delphi and Whitney swam home, Delphi decided that tomorrow she would go to the cove where the humans and dolphins swim together, and maybe make another new friend.