Dolphin Address 09
April 19th 2006
Yesterday I spent a rainy afternoon looking for Dusty. She graced me with a 3 minute presence, chasing a water bird and keeping a stone throws distance. The rest of the time I sometimes saw her dorsal fin emerge through my binoculars in the distance. Next I was informed by a local that in the Easter weekend hundreds of day trippers had ravaged the fields, breaking down stone walls, leaving garbage and even throwing rocks at the dolphin. The obvious scapegoat for this disgusting conduct was me, having put directions for access on my website. Though I think the impact of my information is grossly overestimated and I am quite sure it was not material in inducing this kind of lunatic conduct I feel I will have to refrain from informing the visitors of this website the way I used to. Therefore I have stripped the pertaining info from the English version on the website.
As the well-being of the dolphin and the integrity of the land may be threatened by random attention and seems to evict the dolphin from her dwelling I will have to screen future information with utmost care. From nearly five years of intense interaction with Dusty (and nine with Fungie) I think her self-sought interests are best served by genuine love and attention, not necessarily expressed by spending max time in her water by self-centred individuals, but rather carried by a caring and sharing sense of community. I wish to continue my ‘Dolphin Addresses’, but will strip it from info that might directly or indirectly jeopardise the dolphins safety. I will screen e-mail requests on the dolphins whereabouts on genuine and caring attention to prevent alleged atrocities and strengthen the grasp of good intent.
Dusty’s claim on human attention should be regarded to be a generous gift from the wealth of Irish Nature and I deeply deplore any unsought issue of my spontaneous enthusiasm. I seek to honour the dolphins graces in all her splendour, to share her miracle ways and to keep her from the devastation of ignorance.
Last year she left this residence for Liin Bay (the boathouse bay) around this time, seeking human attention and possibly shelter by the relative safety of human social control. I would therefore encourage photographing dolphin abuse and reporting it to the proper authorities. Dolphins are a protected species and violation of her well-being therefore punishable by law. Also we should not overestimate her need for human contact as she can do very well without us.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
Jan Ploeg, WWR&DC Fanore, April 19th 2006
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