Dolphins save Chinese ship from pirates

[OtisAir]

snip....from here

A giant pod of thousands of dolphins recently saved some Chinese merchant ships from Somali pirates. Flipper would be proud.

Photo credit: Flickr user The Pug Father
I gotta hand it to the Chinese, they don't mess around when it comes to protecting their merchant ships. Instead of posting armed guards or stocking up on anti-pirate weaponry, they enlisted a few thousand dolphins to block Somali pirate ships from attacking their ships passing through the Gulf of Aden.

Seriously.

Ok, so maybe the Chinese didn't actually have anything to do with getting the massive pod of dolphins to surface between their merchant ships and the pirates, but even still -- what a cool story.

The story comes from Xinhuanet, the official media mouthpiece for the Chinese government and came with this gem of a line:

The pirates could only lament their littleness before the vast number of dolphins.
​

Don't mess with Mother Nature, she'll dolphin smack you right upside the head.

 

[Matthew]

huh - maybe they lured them in using melamine-tained chum?

 

[AuntPeggy]

Oh, wow! I missed this when it was first posted. Love it.

 

[Stevel]

I love this story, but...

I don't beleive it. I've been in the middle of a pod of dolphins just about every time I have taken my boat out. They play in the bow wave and the wake, and generally have a good time. Their presence has no effect on how the boat behaves, and they always manage to avoid the prop and not otherwise get themselves hurt.

It seems that the only way this would deter pirates would be if they have never seen a pod of dolphins before, which is not likely unless it was their first time at sea in the area.
________
Bn125

 

[alaskaflyer]

Perhaps they were Navy-trained porpoises.

 

[gkainz]

did they do this on porpoise or was it an accident? Sounds a bit fishy to me!

 

[mantakos]

Re: I love this story, but...

It seems that the only way this would deter pirates would be if they have never seen a pod of dolphins before, which is not likely unless it was their first time at sea in the area.

My understanding is that the Chinese equipped these dolphins with frickin' laser beams on their heads.
-harry

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Re: I love this story, but...

I don't beleive it. I've been in the middle of a pod of dolphins just about every time I have taken my boat out. They play in the bow wave and the wake, and generally have a good time. Their presence has no effect on how the boat behaves, and they always manage to avoid the prop and not otherwise get themselves hurt.

It seems that the only way this would deter pirates would be if they have never seen a pod of dolphins before, which is not likely unless it was their first time at sea in the area.

I was kind of wondering myself, how a dolphin could do anything that would stop a pirate.

 

[Stevel]

Re: I love this story, but...

I was kind of wondering myself, how a dolphin could do anything that would stop a pirate.

I retract my skepticism. I'm thinkin that Flipper and his buddies do a syncronized leap, like you see in the Sea World shows, and each one bites one of the pirates in the nads. You know, kinda like when the Navy SEALS do the syncronized pirate-head-popping. I apologize for doubting the Chinese media.
________
Buy silversurfer vaporizer

 

[Henning]

snip....from here

A giant pod of thousands of dolphins recently saved some Chinese merchant ships from Somali pirates. Flipper would be proud.

Wow! You gotta love the Chinese propaganda machine. Much smoking of opium must have happened to get that story from that picture. I don't care how many dolphins you have, unless you're in a very small boat, dolphins can't do much. Orcas have been known to attack and sink substantial boats though, typically with red bottom paint.

 

[Henning]

Perhaps they were Navy-trained porpoises.

I used to date one of the gals that trained the Navy Dolphins on Point Loma. They have pens for them N of the old sub base.

 

[ScottM]

Those Somalis be given us real pirates a bad name, arrrggh.

 

[jhausch]

I used to date one of the gals that trained the Navy Dolphins on Point Loma. They have pens for them N of the old sub base.

They pen up the trainers? Seems odd. . .but I could see how you'd be drawn to her because of it.

 

[jesse]

I'd trust pretty much nothing that comes out of the state-run Chinese media. It's generally a bunch of complete crap.