Dolphin rescue caught on underwater camera

[Hom3r]

An underwater camera has captured the moment a dolphin that became entangled in a fishing line was freed by a diver in Hawaii.
Martina Wing, who filmed the footage, said that the dolphin seemed to "communicate" with the diver to ask for help.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast's Jon Kay and Louise Minchin from Hawaii, she described the experience as "mind-blowing".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21176914

[thenry]

youtube links..

full
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCXx2...e_gdata_player

bbc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv5Y6...e_gdata_player

Dolpins are awesome! this is epic viewing but it says theres a hook still in the flesh. couldnt they take it out or were they scared of distressing Dolpin?

[Anonymouse]

Fascinating footage there.

What strikes me as significant was that at no time was the dolphin panicking or struggling to get free. And remember this was a wild dolphin. It's so very tempting to think the dolphin knew the diver was trying to help. S/he didn't mind in the least as the diver had to handle the fin to locate and clip the line. I don't think any other wild animal would have behaved so. Pets or strays, yes; I've observed on shows like Animal Precinct that they often seem to understand the vets are helping them, and don't let out a peep no matter what the vets have to do to them.

But for an entirely wild creature to behave so is intriguing. It's compelling evidence in favour of dolphins' intelligence. If they are intelligent, as I've long suspected, this incident might endear us to them when the rescued dolphin reports it to his/her fellows.

Certainly we could use a little good press, given the track record of homo sapiens...