Home Dolphins & Whales Archives Site Map

Dolphin Quotes

“It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.”
Carl Sagan

"Cetaceans seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in sexual activity. This may be generated by boredom in captivity, but observers in the wild tend to confirm it. Dolphins engage in love-play with almost every creature in sight - with mothers, brothers, fathers, daughters, cousins or aunts. There is even one record of a Bottlenose Dolphin masturbating with a herring".
R. Brown, The Lure of the Dolphin, Avon: New York, 1979, quoted in Heathcote Williams, "Whale Nation", Jonathan Cape ltd.,1988.

"The species of whale known as the black right whale has four kilos of brains and 1,000 kilos of testicles. If it thinks at all, we know what it is thinking about."
Jon Lien, "Whale Professor" at St. John's University, Newfoundland, speaking to the Norwegian Telegram Agency (spring 1995).

“The Cetacea hold an important lesson for us. The lesson is not about whales and dolphins, but about ourselves. There is at least moderately convincing evidence that there is another class of intelligent beings on Earth beside ourselves. They have behaved benignly and in many cases affectionately towards us. We have systematically slaughtered them. Little reverence for life is evident in the whaling industry - underscoring a deep human failing...In warfare, man against man, it is common for each side to dehumanize the other so that there will be none of the natural misgivings that a human being has at slaughtering another..."
Carl Sagan, The Cosmic Connection, New York: Doubleday, 1973 (quoted in "Whale Nation" by Heathcote Williams, Jonathan Cape ltd,1988)

Home Dolphins & Whales Archives Site Map