Dolphin Communication

              There have been many misconceptions about dolphins in our past as well as curiosities about them, from the freshwater bouto to the familiar saltwater bottlenose dolphin.  For years dolphins have aroused human curiosity causing us to wish to learn more about them.  There were many wonders if dolphins were intelligent or not.  It was believed that they were for the reason that their brain was of similar sized to a human brain.  It was thought that if we were able to communicate with an animal that the dolphin would be one of the most likely candidates. 

                Old Charley a dolphin and his pod were dolphins that liked to help fishermen round up fish and then would get fed the extras afterwards.  Other dolphins come to share and swim in the shallow waters with the other swimmers.  Dolphins enjoy having their backs rubbed just as a cat or dog does.  They seem extremely attracted to children that would gather fish and give them to the dolphins, the dolphins then dropping the fish only for the children to once again catch and give back to the dolphins, as if to play a sort of game.  Many scientists believed this sort of behavior was a way of trying to communicate with humans, children being the less intimidating of the species.

                Dolphins communicate with a variety of sounds, including clicks and whistles.  They emit these sounds for three reasons, one reason being to use echolocation, and the other reason being to communicate with other dolphins.  Also, they create some noises to temporarily stun fish.  In other words different sounds are for completely different reasons.

                Echolocation is used for several reasons.  Echolocation helps to locate where the dolphin is, since dolphins don’t have very good eyesight this comes in handy, helping them with vision at night or in the murkier depths of the ocean.  Echolocation also helps in stunning fish.  Echolocation is sometimes mistaken for a means to communicate with other dolphins in the same pod or of other pods.