A Dolphin To Leave a Lasting Impact
In her previous blog post “The Dolphin Taught Me to Swim”, Silvana wrote about a lifetime experience, how she learnt to swim with the help of a dolphin as a child. The experience had a huge impact as a child, creating a permanent relationship towards marine life. This blog is about this effect and thoughts it still gives.
As we see ocean beauty, we may have a wake-up to realize it may not last.
Silvana:
I’ve asked myself many times during my life, what happened to my Dolphin? Was he missing me as much as I missed him? Did other dolphins somewhere also “educate” children to swim, the same way as I had experienced? I guess, this I may never know. Perhaps, by the influence of this kind of oceans stories sharing project others might connect and share similar experiences?
I strongly believe, that in these ages and the world we are living in now, these kind of inspirational stories with marine life encounters are needed. Maybe now more than ever.
To meeting marine life in their own environment – be a dolphin swimming with a child, a sleeping whale or even fish – is not just about the individual marine animal, it’s about a connection between our and their every day lives. Our connections to nature is sadly getting more disconnected and we may not know the seas around us. Mental and environmental pollution each are increasing.
My Dolphin – the one which I swan with as small child – accepted me as an earthly creature , equal to him, in his environment, which we in a swimming experience shared. I felt respected by this creature. And safe! I was a student who listened to my dolphin ‘teacher’.
Nowadays, sadly the situation is totally different. Our planet and seas are wounded. We are experiencing climate change, severe storms, floods , diseases, sea, lake and river pollutions. People are loosing connection and respect to the environment.
Children are spending hours and hours on their mobile phones rather than going out to hike, swim, play in nature, etc. We just have no time to stop and admire the nature around us! Have we all forgotten how rich we are for the simple things that nature gives us?
I personally feel sad every time I go to the beach and find an impossible amount of garbage and plastic left on the shore. Is this a ‘thank you’ to the sea that offered us joy and fun during holiday’s or for a simple walk by the sea? Is that respect to the nature that gave us the essence of ‘ life’?
But instead of balance with nature, we have global warming, resulting in rising of sea temperatures .
For example, in the Adriatic sea new plant and animal species appear every year endangering existing species and humans. There are many reports both from Croatia and Montenegro, there are examples of this subject, where biodiversity is disbalanced by new species stepping in as part of the marine food chain.
The dolphin population, which was visibly present in the area in my childhood far more increased than now, are seen seldom and less of them on the horizon.
Sadly, some children will never experience the joy and privilege I had back then. Some may only see dolphins in captivity or on television. I saw one dolphin captivated and treated as a show toy as we were on a holiday trip. After seeing them in the wild and open sea, free, I felt loss and grief. And ashamed at the same time to call myself ‘a human’ .
The dolphin I swam with as a child taught a lesson to respect and love nature . This honoring and care I would like to share with others in this story.
If I got your attention, this is a good beginning and I wish you explore sea life with time to go out to the free open sea, swim with the dolphins and just to be one with nature!
Silvana Ivandic-Määttä (Nana)
Links:
The previous blog post:
