Background

Friday, October 5, 2012

Never Look Back

  
A friend of mine named Jim recently had an interesting experience while vacationing at the Oregon Coast. Debris from the Japanese tsunami continues to make its way across the ocean and all sorts of items float ashore. Jim tells me he’s seen plastic bottles with Japanese labels, tires and sports equipment. But early one morning on an isolated beach he recently spotted something else on the sand, something struggling.
      
Jim approached and saw a large dolphin, its tail tangled in a heavy nylon fishing net. Jim pulled out his pocket knife and cut away the net, but when finished the tide was out, leaving the dolphin stranded on the beach. No one else was around to help but an undeterred Jim grabbed the dolphin by the tail and dragged it into the surf. Did I mention Jim is eighty-six?
      
The dolphin’s ordeal had weakened it, but after a few minutes its strength returned and the creature, with Jim’s help, pushed itself into a wave and soon disappeared. Jim watched until he spotted the dolphin a hundred yards from shore, headed out to sea. I’ve read accounts of people rushing to the aid of stranded pilot whales or seals or dolphins.  I love animals, and I’ve imagined myself dashing to their rescue.
      
When Jim related his encounter with the dolphin I was impressed and imagined a Free Willy moment. I asked, “When you cut it free from the net and dragged it into the water, did the dolphin look back before it swam away?”
      
“You mean like a thank you?” Jim asked.
      
“Yeah. I mean you did save its life.”
     
 Jim smiled. “No, it didn’t look back, thank God!”
      
I must have shown my confusion.
      
“I’ve saved quite a few animals in my lifetime,” Jim explained, “and I’ve learned a thing or two over the years. Such as: the best outcome you can expect when you restore and release an animal into the wild is that it charge back into its environment without looking back. This is a good sign that it isn’t acclimated to humans and has a good chance of surviving.”
      
Hearing this, I felt foolish. I would have wanted Flipper to look back, maybe even wink at me. Damn Hollywood!


Submitted to the great Guys at Dude Write.
    

42 comments:

  1. THat is just silly everyone knows dolphins can't wink.

    Great story...and I got it through blogger today!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The animal that rushes back to its known habitat without hesitation is doing what it should. Great story.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I admire your friend. That was a really kind thing to do. But...I don't think you were being foolish to imagine that the dolphin turned around and acknowledged his gratitude. Oh, I know that your friend Jim is right as sensible pragmatic people often are. The people like me that choose to live in a fairy tale (more like a Looney Toons cartoon world, really) imagine that animals think like humans.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CC, you have the best stories! This one is amazing, that is so cool that this guy saved a dolphin.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Super story. Yeah, me too, I would have wanted to see the some recognition of the encounter....but I watched too much TV as a child too......Oma LInda

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would have expected a financial reward, to be honest. Tight dolphin!

    Nah, seriously this was a great story and Jim is a wise man. I can't believe an eighty-six year old dragged a dolphin back out to sea. What a guy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jim must be in good shape for 86. I'd have probably collapsed dead after two feet. I guess it is silly to expect an animal to thank you. But the next time someone complains I haven't thanked them I'll just say it's because I haven't acclimated to humans yet. Notice I'm not going to thank you for sharing either!

    ReplyDelete
  8. PT's comment is funny!
    i love a good animal rescue story and it's even better when the saver is elderly or particularly young. way to go, jimmy!

    ReplyDelete
  9. what a lovely warming story. Jim is a hero. the quiet kind. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Okay, I'm a sucker for a man who takes charge - no matter what age. Tell your friend Jim he's hot. I saw a group of teens throwing rocks at a stranded sea lion last year, I threw rocks at them.A lot of rocks. they called the police. The woman officer came and charged them with endangering sea life. They were cowards, and the lowest of all humanity. Jim was a hero. Loved your story.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am like you Stephen, and yes Hollywood does have a lot of broken dreams to answer for. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your friend Jim is a hero .. tell him thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I like Jim. He gets it. Just saying.

    Another fine post.

    Have a terrific day and weekend. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jim sounds like one of the "GOOD" guys. Buy him a beer on me!

    With all the 'stuff' finding its way to new and distant places. Sounds like a great make work project for young people. Young offenders should be given the task.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I remember watching a video of some guys in a boat who encountered a whale all wrapped up in a nylon netting. They spent a couple of hours cutting him free and when he was finally loose he swam a short distance away and then put on a lengthy show of breaching and slapping the water with his tail. Was he thanking them? Or was he just exhuberant about being free once again?

    He didn't say.

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a great guy...well done Jim! Although I understand the netting the dolphin was tangled in probably came from the Fukushima disaster, there are too many people who think nothing of throwing fishing nets and lines into the ocean, then cutting them to float away and cause such harm to our wonderful sea creatures. A pox on all of them!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I hope I'm that awesome when I'm 86.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I've never thought of it that way - I was waiting for the story to end with the dolphin waving to Jim. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I think (and I am about 90% sure) that a cedar waxwing returned one winter to thank me for saving its life. I can't prove it, but I don't care.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Do the little splash with it's fin saying thank you. I feel ya and am now also feeling like a jack arse for being so hollywood :) Love the post!

    ReplyDelete
  21. That would be nice to save the life of another living thing. But we tend to put human values on wild critters, which is a mistake. Jim has the right idea.

    S

    ReplyDelete
  22. What a beautiful story. I'm going to Las Vegas in January for C.E.S. and staying at the Mirage. I plan on doing the "Dolphin Trainer for a Day" program so I can swim in a wetsuit with the dolphins and get to see this interesting animal.

    ReplyDelete
  23. How many people would actually do something like this, I would hope the majority would be there to help a stranded Dolphin like this, wink or not it would be amazing to watch one swim away, while you watched knowing you had helped.

    My hats off to Jim

    ReplyDelete
  24. Me too! Dolphins are intelligent so I'm surprised there was not some degree of ...not sure what...well something.

    Way off topic, but I went to the market to buy the tall cabbage you mentioned for sopa caldo verde.
    I explained to the guy what I was looking for and he sold me couve Galega. I could not find the name you mentioned. Was this the one?

    ReplyDelete
  25. No fin wave like at Sea World? Great story, I wonder how much a dolphin weighs?

    WG

    ReplyDelete
  26. I don't mean to brag, but I once tried to save a chipmunk from my cat. I was rewarded with a puncture wound to my left index finger. From the chipmunk. Did you know that employees of the County Health Center are sadly uninformed on chipmunk diseases? Nobody could tell me whether they transmit rabies. But I WAS advised to update my tetanus shot.

    ReplyDelete
  27. jim is a wise and compassionate man. i am glad he is also strong and energetic enough to have done such a good deed.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Now that is a hero in my book! And 86 years old, too. Just makes me grin.
    And-yes-you want them to take off and run for the hills...or the depths. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Jim is a very wise man and by telling his story you have given all of us some very good advice.

    ReplyDelete
  30. We found a baby fox once and took it home to feed it until it got a little bigger. When we released it a few months later, It just stood there staring at us. "Where are you going?" Of course, we don't know what happened to it, but hoped he did okay.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Touching story. I'm also sure Jim has a point - you don't want these animals to rely on or trust us humans too much.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Your friend Jim is a gem. We city folk are far too Disneyfied. I expected the dolphin to acknowledge him too. And I still expect that it will pay it forward one day.. and rescue some human. Can't you just feel Walt smiling? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  33. That dolphin clearly could have at least sent a Hallmark card back to Jim.

    ReplyDelete
  34. For some reason I thought Jim would say that once the animal was rescued, it would turn and attack the rescuer. What a positive outlook on life I have :-)

    ReplyDelete
  35. I'm sure what he says is true, but I agree with you ... is a wink and a fin waggle too much to ask for saving it's life?

    ReplyDelete
  36. What a great random act of kindness! We never know when God is going to present up with the opportunity to do an amazing thing in a very small way!!!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Ha ha, you are such and old softie! :D I blame Hollywood too. :D

    ReplyDelete
  38. That's a pretty incredibly story. I tried to help a gull whose beak was tangle in fishing line. I did the best I could, but he swallowed the fishing line so I could only cut so much of it off. It flew off no problem, but I'm not sure how well it would fair with all that plastic line in its stomach. Who knows.

    ReplyDelete
  39. That's a cool story! I'd like to think someday, Jim will be out on the ocean in need of assistance, and there will be this dolphin........

    ReplyDelete