Intelligent and Kind: mammal dolphins, whales and humans have fun together/ rescue each other - stunning stories, photos, videos

calf floating alongside mother whale beneath whale-watching ship

Swimming along with curious whale calf and mother was nerve-racking

Moko the dolphin enjoys playing with swimmers, pushes kayaks along

a whale that helped a drowning athlete

2nd whale stays by side of friend tangled in rope until she's freed

grateful whale nuzzled each of her rescuers/divers in turn and flapped around

dolphins rescue surfer (severely injured) from becoming shark’s bait

7-Day-Old Baby Dolphin Rescued In Uruguay

Wild Dolphin "Asks" Divers to Help Free Itself from Hook
(Video Comment by M13: "And in JAPAN... they hunt dolphins by cutting off a BABY dolphins fin... then throwing it back in the water. And while its family refuses to leave the crying baby... then can take their time to kill the entire family one by one.")

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[HuffPost 2013/12/19] Sometimes you watch the whale, and other times, the whale watches you.

Whale-watchers in Argentina recently learned that firsthand when a whale hid under their boat. Fortunately, photographer Justin Hofman was in the water at the time and managed to capture the incredible moment.

According to the photographer, a calf was floating alongside the mother whale at the time.

"Swimming along with a curious right whale calf was nerve-racking [sic]. At any moment I thought 'mom' was eventually going to get annoyed with me and swat me with her 15-foot tail -- and I'd be a goner," Hofman recalled, according to the Daily Mail. "Yet, with every passing minute we felt more comfortable around each other and they became curious about us and would make closer passes." Hofman, who works as a wildlife photographer, had the permission of Argentine authorities to dive with the whales in the protected lagoons near the Valdes Peninsula. Southern right whales, native to the Southern Hemisphere, flock to the warm waters off the coast of the peninsula every year to raise their offspring.

The story of Moko the Dolphin - Whale Rescue
Bottlenose Dolphins sometimes shows curiosity towards humans in or near water. Occasionally, Bottlenose Dolphins have rescued injured divers by raising them to the surface. This is similar to behaviour they show towards injured members of their own species. In November 2004, a more dramatic report of dolphin intervention came from New Zealand. Four lifeguards, swimming 100 m (328 ft) off the coast near Whangarei, were approached by a shark (reportedly a Great White Shark). A group of Bottlenose Dolphins, most likely sensing danger to the swimmers, herded them together and tightly surrounded them for forty minutes, preventing an attack from the shark, as they returned to shore.
Dolphins have also been documented exhibiting altruistic behaviour toward other sea creatures. On Mahia Beach, New Zealand on March 10, 2008 two Pygmy Sperm Whales - a female and calf - became stranded on the beach. Rescuers, including Department of Conservation officer Malcolm Smith, attempted to refloat the whales, however their efforts failed four times. Shortly before the whales were to be euthanized a playful Bottlenose Dolphin known to local residents as Moko arrived and, after seemingly communicating with the whales, led them 200 meters along a sandbar to the open sea.
Moko the dolphin had already won over humans at Mahia Beach, where she plays with swimmers in the New Zealand surf and pushes kayaks along.

'Moko', a female dolphin that has been visiting the coastline around the Mahia Peninsula since March 2007, has attracted attention from locals and visitors who have been delighted by close encounters with the animal.

[October 4, 2010] 10 Amazing Stories of Animals Rescuing Humans (Slideshow)
Animals have a knack for saving other animals, but they've also been known to put themselves in the line of danger for humans -- and we're not just talking about pet dogs that protect their homes from burglars.

From dolphins that rescued a surfer from sharks and a whale that helped a drowning athlete to an elephant that protected a young girl from a tsunami, these amazing, selfless animal heroes remind us once again of the unique species we co-habitat with that we need to protect.

[TreeHugger / The Vanguard, September 30, 2013] Whale stays by the side of friend tangled in rope, celebrates when she's freedThe ocean can be a dark and perilous place, but much less so when you have a friend.

Over the weekend, crew members aboard a whale watching vessel off the coast of Long Island spotted an all-too-common sight -- a humpback whale that had become hopelessly entangled in fishing line, unable to swim. As they moved in for a closer look, they soon discovered that the whale, although desperately trapped, was at least not alone. The buddy-system, it seems, was in force.

Christine Callaghan, a guide with Pirate's Cove Whale Watch, says that what she saw unfold was "unforgettable."

The two humpbacks, named Foggy and Grommet, are frequent visitors to the area, but the extent of their friendship wasn't known until that day. Callaghan writes that Foggy "had rope wrapped around her head and across her blowholes, and as we carefully approached, we could see that she also had a loop of rope across her peduncle (the narrow part of her tail, just ahead of the flukes), dragging a mass of old lobster traps beneath her."

Although the other whale could swim away, it never left Foggy's side. Instead, Grommet could be seen lifting out of the water as if to plead for help from the approaching humans.

"I will challenge anyone who claims that humans are the only intelligent, empathetic animals," says Callaghan. "Grommet never left Foggy's side, frequently spy-hopping throughout the long afternoon." Spy-hopping is when whales stick just their heads out of the water and appear to look around at the above surface world.

"We were all waiting for the whale disentanglement crew in their fast rescue craft to arrive from Campobello Island." Campobello Island is on the other side of the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick about 80 kilometres away. They arrived about 5 p.m. "Another boat, the Shearwater, from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, MA, happened to be in the Bay of Fundy this afternoon, and came to provide any assistance they could.

"After assessing Foggy's predicament, they stood by awaiting the FRC with its specially designed equipment. It's hard to imagine that Foggy and Grommet didn't comprehend what was happening as the Campobello crew worked to cut first the rope snagging Foggy's tail, and then the ones around her head."

Even after a disentanglement crew arrived to assess Foggy, Grommet continued to linger close by, observing their progress. Then, the rescuers cut the ropes, freeing the humpback from her grim predicament.

Rescuers cut the last rope shortly after 5:30p.m.
"The crew decided to leave a single strand in her mouth, fearing they would cause excessive bleeding if they dragged it out, and figuring that she would likely be able to rid herself of it. "Foggy allowed them to approach within feet, and quietly tolerated their work to cut her free."

“Now comes the truly amazing thing… the instant the rope came off Foggy’s head, Grommet dove, and then burst from the water in a spectacular breach," Callaghan writes.

“Tell me that wasn't a celebration. The last we saw of them, the two whales were heading side by side in and up the Bay. And everyone on all three boats had huge smiles on their faces. Well done, all." Christine Callaghan is a guide with Pirate's Cove Whale Watch of Tiverton, Long Island.
Organizations: Center for Coastal Studies, FRC
Geographic location: Bay of Fundy, Long Island, Campobello Island New Brunswick Provincetown, MA

Dolphins save surfer from becoming shark’s bait - a pod of bottlenose dolphins helped protect the severely injured boarder
Surfer Todd Endris needed a miracle. The shark — a monster great white that came out of nowhere — had hit him three times, peeling the skin off his back and mauling his right leg to the bone.

That’s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around Endris, allowing him to get to shore, where quick first aid provided by a friend saved his life.

“Truly a miracle,” Endris told TODAY’s Natalie Morales on Thursday. The attack occurred on Tuesday, Aug. 28, just before 11 a.m. at Marina State Park off Monterey, Calif., where the 24-year-old owner of Monterey Aquarium Services had gone with friends for a day of the sport they love. Nearly four months later, Endris, who is still undergoing physical therapy to repair muscle damage suffered during the attack, is back in the water and on his board in the same spot where he almost lost his life.

“[It] came out of nowhere. There’s no warning at all. Maybe I saw him a quarter second before it hit me. But no warning. It was just a giant shark,” Endris said. “It just shows you what a perfect predator they really are.”

The shark, estimated at 12 to 15 feet long, hit him first as Endris was sitting on his surfboard, but couldn’t get its monster jaws around both surfer and surfboard. “The second time, he came down and clamped on my torso — sandwiched my board and my torso in his mouth,” Endris said.

That attack shredded his back, literally peeling the skin back, he said, “like a banana peel.” But because Endris’ stomach was pressed to the surfboard, his intestines and internal organs were protected.

The third time, the shark tried to swallow Endris’ right leg, and he said that was actually a good thing, because the shark’s grip anchored him while he kicked the beast in the head and snout with his left leg until it let go.

The dolphins, which had been cavorting in the surf all along, showed up then. They circled him, keeping the shark at bay, and enabled Endris to get back on his board and catch a wave to the shore.

Our finned friends
No one knows why dolphins protect humans, but stories of the marine mammals rescuing humans go back to ancient Greece, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

A year ago in New Zealand, the group reports, four lifeguards were saved from sharks in the same way Endris was — by dolphins forming a protective ring.

In December 2005 a 50-foot, 50-ton, female humpback whale got tangled in crab lines and was in danger of drowning. After a team of divers freed her, she nuzzled each of her rescuers in turn and flapped around in what one whale expert said was “a rare and remarkable encounter.”
James Moskito, one of the rescuers, recalled that, “It felt to me like it was thanking us, knowing it was free and that we had helped it.” He said the whale “stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some fun.”
Mike Menigoz, another of the divers, was also deeply touched by the encounter: “The whale was doing little dives, and the guys were rubbing shoulders with [her]. I don’t know for sure what [she] was thinking, but it’s something I will always remember.”

7-Day-Old Baby Dolphin Rescued In Uruguay (GALLERY)
[October 18, 2011] - A 7-day-old female La Plata river dolphin has been rescued on Uruguay’s Punta Colorada beach. The baby dolphin was so young that the umbilical cord was still attached. Director Richard Tesore of the SOS Rescate de Fauna Marina rehabilitation center confirmed the dolphin was safely transported to their marine animal rescue center in Piriapolis.

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Image courtesy Justin Hoffman / Barcroft Media / Landov, wireless-mesh-fm-radio-tv-media.blogspot.com, FoxNews, Pirate's Cove Whale Watch, Today.com, and The Marine Mammal Center