Dolphins and Boiled Prawns

The boat churns through the water, its little Yamaha outboard motor making little wavelets and tossing spray high into the air, the painted prow of the Paulo star cut through the sun-soaked ocean leaving a wake that stretched back to the palm-tree smothered shore. I drag my fingers in the water, feeling the cold rush between my fingers and the wind in my hair. We are chasing dolphins, nipping around headlands and bays in search of one of our closer brethren. It is said that dolphins are amongst the most intelligent creatures on the planet. I suppose they would have to be, for they’ve found paradise to live in.

It is idyllic out here, the calm blue sea rocking gently beneath me, the sun, recently risen making long, dappled reflections in the water and the incredible thrill of exploring an element that we left not so long ago.


Paulo, a Goan fisherman, is at the tiller, his bronzed skin gleaming with sweat; he has a perfect tan, born of hard labour beneath the hot Konkan sun, the same shade that fat, pink Europeans were spending ridiculous amounts of money to obtain. Quite a waste as they all end up resembling boiled prawns.

Suddenly a cry, “they’re there!”

I turn in my seat, seeing Paulo pointing in front of me and there, for less that a second a streamlined, grey shape slicing swiftly through the water, and then it is gone. I feel a strange sense of euphoria; I have just seen a dolphin in the wild! A fleeting glance, but now I am on the edge of my seat, scanning the surrounding sea.

The engine stops. Frantic whispering, Paulo points, then suddenly a long nose, glinting wet in the light lances effortlessly out of the sea, without making a splash it breaks out of the sea, behind it comes the rest of the dolphin, dark grey and moving with incredible grace it surfaces, a great plume of spray bursts from its blowhole, then just as easily it vanishes.

I have not long to wait, suddenly a large mass of dolphin erupts from the sea not ten feet from the boat, it emerges completely, twisting like a ballerina, lights dance around it in the spray, it seems to stop, motionless hanging in the air, then with quite an ungainly slap of the tail it is gone. “He’s showing off”, said someone.

We wait a while and no more dolphin. He, or she has vacated the area. Paulo starts his little outboard and the star begins to move. I ask Paulo whether he has ever seen any sharks, he replies, “where there are dolphins,” (here he pauses dramatically) “there are no sharks. They fight, so we are with dolphin, so no shark.”

Douglas Adams once said that humans think they were the most intelligent creatures on the planet because we have cities and bombs and big wars, whereas dolphins just swim around having a whale of a time (pardon the pun). The dolphins, on the other hand, consider themselves to be smarter, for precisely the same reason. While it is impossible to fathom the mind of another species, the momentary glance I had of a dolphin conveyed a strange sense of playful superiority. I would much rather be sharing an ocean with them than a Great White Shark, though.

I can spot the next dolphins, or rather school of dolphins; there are about six, breaking the water behind us all spurting water from their blowholes before disappearing beneath the surface. Dolphins are incredible, the sheer effortlessness of their movement, the poise and grace of their swimming speaks of a domination of their element, which we can never hope to achieve.

Dolphins are beginning to have a hard time of it, though. Increased fishing has meant that dolphins are rapidly losing their main source of food; large drift nets often catch dolphins that suffocate because they cannot surface. Oil slicks and marine pollution also take their toll. In China, the Yangtze freshwater river dolphin is almost extinct- the Chinese prize them as exotic cuisine, particularly the embryo, so there are less than two-dozen left.

We are returning to the shore, greeted by the now-familiar sight of the golden sand, the waving fronds of the coconut trees as they sway in the ocean breeze and the sight of sunbathing tourists. This encounter with the dolphins has been an interesting experience, an insight into a totally alien world, maybe greater than our own, that we know so little about, but are already threatening with extinction.

-Abhimanyu Arni