HAIFA — The achievements of the Israel Defense Force are known far and wide, but the IDF we speak of here is a completely different agency.
It is the Israeli Dolphins’ Friends, who deal with the activity of dolphins in a new, and unsuspected, role — messengers of environmental trouble.
Dolphins are not strangers in this country. They apparently inhabited the waters off the coast at least in Roman times. There are pictures of dolphins on the mosaic flooring in a tomb at Beit Shean, and in a building uncovered during recent explorations in Zippori.
The intelligent, friendly, docile sea creatures, known to most Israelis only from their performances in the now-defunct Dolphinarium, today make their home in not inconsiderable numbers off the coast, particularly in the south.
An 18-month research project by a team at the Recanati Center for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa reports sightings of more than 800 dolphins during that period, though the figure may be less because of repetitive reports.
The dolphins are gregarious creatures and travel in groups, known as pods. But what role do they play in “defense” of our coastal waters?
Since the creation of the Jewish state, about 50 dolphins have been washed up on our shores, dead or dying — 20 of these in the last two years. Careful study of the dead dolphins showed they were suffering from pollution or bacterial or viral factors in the water.
Because of their delicate systems, dolphins are the very first to suffer from harmful elements in the water. It is their role as early ecological indicators of pollution that makes them watchmen and guardians of our shores, and local scientists are taking seriously the warning inherent in the increasing dolphin fatalities.
Oz Goffman, an Israeli student who is preparing his master’s thesis on the subject of the dolphins, has become so enamored of his subject that he appears to be devoting his life to them.
With the support of Professor Ehud Spanier, of the university’s Center for Maritime Studies, public interest is also being mobilized.
Volunteers are on call to render immediate service when reports come in of injured dolphins stranded on the shore. Immediate treatment, medication and care may often save the creature’s life and enable it to rejoin its pod at sea.
The real need is for construction of a convalescent pool, where the ailing dolphins may be kept until fully recovered, when they can return to their families. But with so many human social and economic needs, who has time or money for sick dolphins?
Dolphin experts believe the mammals are worth the attention. Because of their unusual intelligence, dolphins can be trained not only to “perform” at public showings, but also to carry out tasks in service to mankind.
Not long ago there was a furor in the United States when it was suggested dolphins could carry out military functions, such as suicide missions against enemy vessels, with explosives strapped to their bodies.
On a more positive tone, it has been noted that fishermen have been able to train dolphins to drive schools of fish into the nets which they cast, and then the “sheep dogs” swim alongside and wait for their share of the catch.
Equipped with TV cameras, the dolphins can submerge instantaneously to sunken vessels, and send back real-time pictures from places where human divers cannot reach.
In Israel, the dolphins could provide a vital defense of the environment, experts say.
What is going on in our coastal waters that the growing number of dolphin fatalities should alert us to? Are the waters being polluted by the increase in shipping? Are there other causes, which may yet affect man?
The University of Haifa team is operating without a budget and without space, but it is driven by a spirit of determination and love of the playful creatures.