The Cove Page #2

because it was the Flipper TV series

that created this

multi-billion-dollar industry.

It created this desire

to swim with them and kiss them

and hold them and hug them

and love them to death,

and it created all these captures.

There were five female dolphins

who collectively played

the part of Flipper.

I captured the five dolphins myself.

The entire crew turns to

with battle station teamwork.

When the porpoise is sighted,

not a moment can be lost.

The men handle this creature

with infinite care.

She seems to sense

that she has come home,

that no harm will come to her now.

She is safe.

When I started training dolphins,

there was no manual.

I would get the script,

and it says "Flipper goes over

to the dock "and picks up the gun

and then swims down left to right."

I had to actually translate that

into action somehow.

Thanks, Flipper.

Yeah. Thanks, Flipper.

The thing that really struck me

was that they're smarter

than we think they are.

The house that you see

on the Flipper set

where the family lives

was actually my house.

I lived there all year round

for seven years.

And right in front of the house

there was a lake, salt water lake,

and that's where Flipper was

at the end of the dock.

When Flipper came on television

at Friday night at 7:30,

I would take my television

set from the house

and go down the end of the dock

with a long extension cord,

and Cathy would watch

herself on television,

and she could tell the difference

between herself and Suzy,

who was another Flipper

dolphin that was used.

I knew then they were self-aware,

and when you become conscious

of this nonhuman intelligence,

you realize after a while

they don't really belong in captivity.

But I didn't do anything about it.

One day, it all ended.

Like the props, they went

back to the Miami Seaquarium.

When you just walk into this place

and the music is playing,

the dolphin is jumping and smiling,

it's hard to see the problem.

But a dolphin's smile

is nature's greatest deception.

It creates the illusion

they're always happy.

The nerve center of any dolphinarium

is the fish house.

And if you go to any one

of these fish houses,

you'll see bottles

of Maalox and Tagamet.

And they're used

because dolphins get ulcers,

because they're all stressed out.

You have to see them in the wild

to understand

why captivity doesn't work.

In the wild, they're traveling

They could be surfing

in one area in the morning,

and the next hour

they could be 25 miles away

feeding or socializing.

Dolphins are acoustic creatures.

That's their primary sense.

The best sonar that man has

is a toy compared

to the dolphins' sonar.

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