At home with dolphins

Press, 5 October 1977, Page 41

At home with dolphins

A New Zealand husband-and-wife team, Wade and

Jan Doak, are launching “Project Interlock” to see if they can establish a relationship with wild dolphins under natural conditions — without any coercion or reward. Wade Doak has put his

Matapouri home on the market to finance the research, which is being carried out off the Poor Knights Islands. Last summer, using a variety of experimental approaches, they managed to develop a playful relationship with two groups of common dolphins. “We met them out at sea on repeated occasions and spent many hours with them,” says Mr Doak. “My wife and family were able to recognise the dolphins from variations in body patterns and behaviour. These dolphins taught us a

number of manoeuvres and •' we mimicked them, wearing dolphins fins and copying their style of swimming.

"Shortly after the first group left the Poor Knights region there were reports from up the coast of unusually friendly dolphins approaching divers’ boats off Tutukaka and Cape Brett and frolicking with swimmers at Coopers Beach. *We could not determine whether it was the same group moving north, but this may some day become possible if there were a chain of dolphin watchers along the coast with whom we could exchange observations.

“Our biggest worry is that our experimentation, at considerable cost, can never expect to establish proof as to whether games can be played in the open sea, the first stage in interspecies communication, if these dolphins are subject to any molestation by man —including attemps to capture them for aquarium exhibition. For this reason, to ensure that trust can be maintained this summer,

we are seeking special protection for marine mammals around the Poor Knights Islands — and in memory of Opo, throughout Northland.

“We are requesting that the three aquariums which exhibit dolphins, at Napier, Mount Manganui, and Orewa, might volunteer an undertaking that dolphins will not be captured north of Cape Rodney.” This summer, Project Interlock will enter a new phase of experimentation. The Doaks have switched from using a fast deep V to a 36ft Polynesian-style catamaran, called Interlock, especially adapted to diving. Interlock is being equipped with solar battery charger, stereophonic sound transmitters in its bows, generator, R.T. to help keep in touch with dolphin sightings, and a high speed pneumatic runabout designed for surf rescue work.

Along with a range of new electronic equipment

being assembled, the divers will be using a dolphin suit. Especially constructed to their specifications by Moray Industries after tests on a prototype, the dolphin suit gives a human being the form and colour pattern of a dolphin.

The wearer swims with greater ease than conventional diving gear and can more readily mimic the behaviour of the dolphins. This leads to an exchange of Opo-style swimming games, which the Doaks believe is the first step to interspecies communication. As their programme develops, the divers hope to interest other people in playing with dolphins in the wild and sharing experiences.

The Doaks believe that an investigation of dolphins in the wild is long overdue. “Our knowledge of these large-brained mammals is based largely on individuals in captivity. Until studies have been

made of dolphin behaviour in natural conditions man will not understand the true nature of the most highly evolved life forms on this planet besides his own species.

“On land. Jane Goodall and other observers have followed free-ranging bands of chimpanzees and wild dogs until they discovered the keys to their body language and social organisation. This is much easier w’ith terrestrial animals than in the sea, but we hope that a start can be made towards reaching a similar understanding of dolphins. “Our experiments so iar have shown that dolphins are amenable to playful inquiry by man. We now have the ship and the gear to establish contact with wild dolphins for extended periods, and will record the results on film.”