Dolphins defend Chinese shipping

[phongn]

BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.
The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's.

The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.

China initiated its three-ship escort task force on Dec. 26 last year after the United Nations Security Council called on countries to patrol gulf and waters off Somalia, one of the world's busiest marine routes, where surging piracy endangered intercontinental shipping.

China's first fleet has escorted 206 vessels, including 29 foreign merchant vessels, and successfully rescued three foreign merchant ships from pirate attacks.

About 20 percent of Chinese merchant ships passing through the waters off Somalia were attacked by pirates from January to November in 2008, before the task force was deployed.

A total of seven ships, either owned by China or carrying Chinese cargo and crew, were hijacked.

Tianyu No. 8, a Chinese fishing vessel with 16 Chinese and eight foreign sailors aboard, was captured by Somali pirates on Nov. 14 and released in early February.

The second fleet of Chinese escort ships arrived at the Gulf of Aden on Monday to replace the first fleet.

(Xinhua and Cri contributed to the story)

[Zor]

An unusual development, but interesting none the less. Never the less, i salute these noble marine mammals in preventing piratical scum from interfearing with international shipping and threatening the lives of sailors.

Zor

[Koolaidkirby]

screams propaganda piece to me, I really doubt thousands of dolphins popped up

[General Zod]

screams propaganda piece to me, I really doubt thousands of dolphins popped up

The numbers are almost certainly made up. It's possible that they wound up between a school of dolphins accidentally and the pirates couldn't get through, but thousands? Yeah, right.

[CarsonPalmer]

What's next, a scene from the Adam West Batman movie?

Robin: Gosh, Batman. The nobility of the almost-human porpoise.

Batman: True, Robin. It was noble of that animal to hurl himself into the path of that final torpedo. He gave his life for ours.

[tim31]

I don't remember that scene. I do remember the Shark Repellant scene.

Wait until the conspiracy nuts get ahold of this one and start saying that PLAN has been breeding/brainwashing dolphins to work like escort fighters. Sounds like one of the more poorly scripted episodes of seaQuest.

[Koolaidkirby]

Wait until the conspiracy nuts get ahold of this one and start saying that PLAN has been breeding/brainwashing dolphins to work like escort fighters. Sounds like one of the more poorly scripted episodes of seaQuest.

wait wait wait... mind controlled dolphins... I know that was in some game... wasn't it red alert 2?

[General Zod]

Wait until the conspiracy nuts get ahold of this one and start saying that PLAN has been breeding/brainwashing dolphins to work like escort fighters. Sounds like one of the more poorly scripted episodes of seaQuest.

wait wait wait... mind controlled dolphins... I know that was in some game... wasn't it red alert 2?

Chuck Norris went up against some deadly dolphins once.

[Ilya Muromets]

wait wait wait... mind controlled dolphins... I know that was in some game... wasn't it red alert 2?

Nah, the Allies supposedly trained their dolphins. The Soviets were the ones with mind-controlled giant squids.

That said, "thousands" of dolphins has my bullshit-o-meter beeping. Unless a huge chunk of the dolphin population in the Pacific suddenly decided it liked China, a number anywhere near the hundreds much less the thousands is so unlikely as to be effectively impossible.

[Venator]

I doubt "thousands" very much, but there's certainly a goodly number in the image from the article... perhaps a hundred or so?

Most likely a group of dolphins that happened to be in the area; it's odd, but it's the most rational explanation.

Alternatively, the Chinese are field testing a new form of hydrophone that they will later apply to submarine warfare, summoning whales to confuse US sonar operators and... sorry. After playing RA2, I just can't take this seriously.

[The Yosemite Bear]

purhaps the dolphins were 'shopped' I know I'm a cynic....

[Ilya Muromets]

purhaps the dolphins were 'shopped' I know I'm a cynic....

So first the Iranians with missiles and now the Chinese with dolphins? What next? North Koreans shopping death rays emanating from Kim Jong Il's eyes?

[The Yosemite Bear]

Why not, and the Japanese Self Defense Force can have the teenager driven giant robots too...

[Koolaidkirby]

I doubt "thousands" very much, but there's certainly a goodly number in the image from the article... perhaps a hundred or so?

Most likely a group of dolphins that happened to be in the area; it's odd, but it's the most rational explanation.

Alternatively, the Chinese are field testing a new form of hydrophone that they will later apply to submarine warfare, summoning whales to confuse US sonar operators and... sorry. After playing RA2, I just can't take this seriously.

after the Chinese had the special effects guys beef up their fireworks during the Olympics, I wouldn't put it past them to make this look like there were a lot more dolphins than there really were.

[Shinova]

I call coincidence the dolphins just happened to up and appear between the two. Leave it to China to interpret that as a sign the universe loves them more than it actually does.

[mr friendly guy]

I call coincidence the dolphins just happened to up and appear between the two. Leave it to China to interpret that as a sign the universe loves them more than it actually does.

How do you interpret that from the article?

Most of it was talking about attacks on Chinese ships in general and the need to deploy ships to protect Chinese shipping.
One throw away line on what a spectacular sight the dolphins made, which is a subjective matter but hardly says oh well, look how the universe loves us.
There was another propaganda line which was a swipe against the pirates, and there is no way you can take that by itself to draw the interpretation you did.
Unless you are going to argue getting the numbers of dolphins wrong someone means China must interpret that as a sing the universe loves them more

[Solauren]

It reminds me of pictures I've seen of two schools of dolphins meeting to mate.

Coincidence, and the Chinese media can't count.

[open_sketchbook]

"Skree'ee--eee, eeek!" (Lit. "Freedom at any cost!")

But yes, totally propaganda. "The seas themselves rush to defend us!" sorta stuff.

[B5B7]

In the War-room:
"Gentlemen, a dolphin control gap now exists between us and the Chinese. We must act to fix this. Doctor (recording censored - name removed for security reasons) what is your recommendation? ...."