dolphin story

When we were at sea world in Orlando, Lao Yang and I watched a lot of marine animal performances together. We stayed in the penguin pavilion for a long time, watching the cute penguins in the ice and snow, and quietly watching the huge manatee in the manatee pavilion. Swimming slowly and gently. At that time, Lao Yang asked me, are those animals that can only survive in a solid container very unhappy? Are those dolphins, seals, and sea lions who perform several times a day tired and reluctant? I told him confidently at the time, I don't know anything else, but at least dolphins don't. They are born to like to play, like to play with high-intelligence humans; and the manatee looks so docile, it may not be seen in the wild world. Better than an aquarium. I'm confident because the books I've read say so.

I hope I'm right, those animals are really happy in aquariums and zoos. I've always wanted to take my kids to the aquarium more often in the future and tell them that it's a dolphin, that's a killer whale, that they're close relatives, and that fat, cute behemoth that's mom's favorite manatee. I was like this, with a beautiful longing, until tonight I watched a documentary called "The Cove", a documentary about the mass killing of dolphins in a Japanese town taiji. This is a group of American dolphin conservationists who secretly filmed dolphins being hunted. Killing, shooting views and interpretations of relevant characters in Japan and other countries, shooting happy, sad, beautiful and ugly films.

After watching the film, there are many things I want to say, but I will not say every word. Because I understand that it is impossible to get a fishing country to give up fishing; I understand that if they don't catch dolphins, they will hunt for other substitutes, and cruelty will not end; I understand even more that no one has a position to go Judge other people's behavior. That pool full of dolphin blood slapped each of us in the face, but our attitude was to clean the pool, suspend the fishing in taiji, fire a few people, set up a few high-sounding decrees, not Ignore similar behavior in the rest of Japan, the rest of the world.

All I can say to myself is that big question mark, are dolphins really happy when they are performing?

I don't have an answer. There is a saying in the documentary that the smile of dolphins is nature's biggest lie, but I can't overthrow what I have believed in for 20 years because of a documentary, but I can no longer tell others with confidence that dolphins are in high school. Happy when jumping high against the water polo. I can no longer say to people that I love going to the aquarium and the way humans keep animals in captivity is actually protecting them. I really hope that one day, a scientist who won't deceive me, an absolutely objective, infallible scientist can tell me how dolphins feel.


On our last day in Florida, we were going to go to the Manatee Conservation Center in Fort Pierce, from where we can paddle a canoe and watch wild unrestrained manatees in nature. In the end, it didn't work. But I think, carefully in nature, watching these creatures with souls like me, playing and resting, is the greatest respect for them and myself.

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