Bob Boekelheide wrote:

>Dennis, it's time to stop huffing in the specimen cases! Too much
>paradichlorobenzene, I'd say...


Bob,

At least Dennis is just at the mothballs. I recently read a story about an
Oregon scientist who had studied a group of about a dozen dolphins that
ranged between Crescent City, California and Coos Bay, Oregon.

This gentleman had studied the same group for almost 40 years and learned
that the dolphins did not seem to age. The guy just couldn't resist and
captured 6 of the pod and kept them in a net cage in Coos Bay to try to find
out why. Not surprisingly, this group showed immediate health problems.
Not knowing whether this was from loneliness, diet or other cause the man
decided he would try to provide the same diet to the captives as the free
pod was feeding on.

The pod was unusual in that it regularly feasted on WESTERN GULL chicks that
failed first flights from a rookery on a stack rock near Crescent City. The
scientist collected 30 chicks on a full mooned night last June to take back
to Coos Bay to feed to the dolphins. Unbeknownst to the man his noctural
activities were observed by local authorities. He returned to Crescent City
and drove North toward Coos Bay.

A Brookings, OR police officer pulled him over as soon as he entered that
fair city. The scientist was surprised when hand-cuffs were immediately
slapped on him. "What is the charge officer?" "As if you didn't know", the
officer said, "it is illegal to transport young gulls across state lines for
immortal porpoises".


Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA / New York, NY


robin_birder at hotmail.com




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