Dolphins help desperate seamen
DOLPHINS tried to help drowning fishermen in Stanley Harbour.
Bank Manager Nick Hutton describing his conversation with launchman John Pole-Evans explained how dolphins attempted to come to the rescue of the Indonesian seamen who jumped overboard from the fishing vessel Jih Da Gan on February 19.
He said, “For some it was all they could do to hold onto their makeshift buoyancy device,†adding that when the launch reached them they could barely raise their, arms let alone use the life rings thrown out to them.
“Yet, as human hands struggled to pull their frigid bodies from the water, help was being offered below the surface,†said Mr Hutton whose wife has been assisting with translation.
The Indonesians who survived their brief ordeal tell of the dolphins (or ‘lumba Iurnba’ in Indonesian) that repeatedly swam under and nudged them upwards.
Mr Hutton said that one of the men, Sudirman (21) from Salawesi, (second from the right with fellow crewmen) actually managed to swim to the Camber but he acknowledges it was not without the help of the porpoises that repeatedly swam under him and lifted him towards the shore.
“Who knows how they knew to drive him to land and not back into the harbour?†he said.
The events of February 19 left two of the seamen missing, presumed drowned but Falkland Islanders find it remarkable that even eight survived for so long in the cold water.
How much of this can be credited to the Commerson and Peales dolphins swimming unseen below the surface we will never know, but there are eight men a long way from home who are
grateful for all the help they received - human or otherwise.
A member of the crew of Jih Da Gan was arrested by Royal Falkland Islands Police on Saturday; he has since been released on police bail.
Police are said to be working closely with the Principal Crown Counsel, to ascertain if there are any criminal charges to be brought. (Picture N. Hutton)
Source : Penguin News - Falkland Islands
DOLPHINS tried to help drowning fishermen in Stanley Harbour.
Bank Manager Nick Hutton describing his conversation with launchman John Pole-Evans explained how dolphins attempted to come to the rescue of the Indonesian seamen who jumped overboard from the fishing vessel Jih Da Gan on February 19.
He said, “For some it was all they could do to hold onto their makeshift buoyancy device,†adding that when the launch reached them they could barely raise their, arms let alone use the life rings thrown out to them.
“Yet, as human hands struggled to pull their frigid bodies from the water, help was being offered below the surface,†said Mr Hutton whose wife has been assisting with translation.
The Indonesians who survived their brief ordeal tell of the dolphins (or ‘lumba Iurnba’ in Indonesian) that repeatedly swam under and nudged them upwards.
Mr Hutton said that one of the men, Sudirman (21) from Salawesi, (second from the right with fellow crewmen) actually managed to swim to the Camber but he acknowledges it was not without the help of the porpoises that repeatedly swam under him and lifted him towards the shore.
“Who knows how they knew to drive him to land and not back into the harbour?†he said.
The events of February 19 left two of the seamen missing, presumed drowned but Falkland Islanders find it remarkable that even eight survived for so long in the cold water.
How much of this can be credited to the Commerson and Peales dolphins swimming unseen below the surface we will never know, but there are eight men a long way from home who are
grateful for all the help they received - human or otherwise.
A member of the crew of Jih Da Gan was arrested by Royal Falkland Islands Police on Saturday; he has since been released on police bail.
Police are said to be working closely with the Principal Crown Counsel, to ascertain if there are any criminal charges to be brought. (Picture N. Hutton)
Source : Penguin News - Falkland Islands
