Dolphin Address 40
October 16th 2005
Sunlight may well be the major incentive to schedule our activities. Whether we live by day or night, we orientate to its brightness or turn on artificial devices to prolong or even dodge it. We would feel lost without its table, no chair to sit, no bed to lay upon.
Most people live in total oblivion of that other celestial force that rules our planet. Its liquid component, the oceans, is drawn and let go by the pull of the moon. Unless your daily concern is affected by the sea you probably have no apprehension of the tides. Even in spite of its nightly display you mostly have little or no consciousness of the phase of the moon.
The dolphin, however, marches to two different drums. Like most of us she schedules her activities on the cycle of light and darkness. But although to the acquire of food she may not be fully dependent on what the tide brings in, it does make the difference between a chase and a treat.
Though the cycles of sun and moon may seem synchronised in day and night to us landlubbers they are actually shifting in their full effect. Each twenty-four hours the tide loses a rough average of 50 minutes to the daylight. In a months time there are two peaks of an approximate average of 1 hour and 15 minutes and two lows of a little over half an hour. This according to the Galway tide table for 2005, taken from February and July. When two schedules that have such pervading influence on an existence are out of sync in this variance this is bound to have an effect on the practical organisation of life. An obvious conclusion is that the average supper time is structurally late every day for 50 minutes, at least in relation to the sun cycle.
This sounds kind of familiar, Mother Nature keeping her children hungry as she likes to do in for instance procreative respect. First question that pops up is if this only pertains to dolphins or if this goes for all creatures living in the sea, at least those whose habitat is directly influenced by the tides. I guess the latter, but then there is the consideration that dolphins only need about 2,5 out of each 24 hours to provide in their feeding needs. Although this does not affect the shift in cycles it gives quite some flexibility to their feeding patterns.
If this line of reasoning is correct it does seem like dolphins, though formidably successful predators, have a structural delay built into their appetite. I wonder if Delphinaria keep this into account. Regarding their superiority this can hardly function as a drive to survival. At most it is an incentive, a challenge, an invitation even to handle strategies that cope with varying conditions. Put in such abstract wording it might even refer to game and play. I feel reluctant to rush to the conclusion that the wetting of appetite inspires to a ludic lifestyle. Quite a few species are drawing on a rather tighter end when it comes to appeasing their hunger and they don't seem to be getting much fun out of that. Maybe the dolphins intelligence tips the scale here, though it maybe our mistake to think that these other species are plain stupid.
Maybe here I should step back, not necessarily to jump further, but rather to invite other opinions. I find solace in the epitome that is presented in the 'Matrix' movie: 'It's the question that leads us.' The urge to satisfy our curiosity has lifted us above any other species. The outline is very much the same though. Being kept hungry, whether it is for food, for sex or for knowledge, can induce to climbing ever higher steps on the ladder of evolution. For today I had my fill, but I already wonder what tomorrow may bring.
Jan Ploeg, Meadow Fanore, October 16th 2005
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