Witness the Unique Rendering of How a Dolphin Sees a Man

Witness the unique rendering of how a dolphin sees a man in the images recreated for the first time in CymaScope and computer enhanced.

Dolphins are still a mystery to the scientific community trying to understand how these smart cetaceans perceive the world and navigate through it. Using dolphin echolocation and highly sensitive equipment a joint research team managed to capture for the first time an image of what a dolphin at the Dolphin Discovery Center in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico saw.

Amazed by what they found, the researchers intend to look even further. According to them, such images, perhaps even more clear and rich in details are used between dolphins to communicate. Dolphin language is mesmerizing. Perhaps transmitting images such as these is part of some unknown marine mammal language.

The leader of the research team, Jack Kassewitz of SpeakDolphin.com stated in the press release:

“Our recent success has left us all speechless. We now think it is safe to speculate that dolphins may employ a sono-pictorial form of language, a language of pictures that they share with each other”.

Before setting the stage for an amazing form of interspecies communication, let’s take a look at what happened here. Once at the Dolphin Discovery Center in Puerto Aventuras, Jim McDonough, part of the research team dived in the water, meeting Amaya in the pool. To avoid any disturbances, the research wore a weight belt and the air was exhaled in his lungs.

As Amaya approached and directed echolocation beams towards the researcher, other members of the team used high specification audio equipment in order to capture the signal.

The recording was then sent in the UK, home to the CymaScope laboratory. Even the first image thus obtained allowed the researchers to witness the unique rendering of how a dolphin sees a man and left them amazed.

The CymaScope team and professor John Stuart Reid imprinted the recording to a water membrane. The image was then computer enhanced. The process will be the topic of another scientific paper.

When the images came out, the research team expected that they will show Jim McDonough’s face. However, to everyone’s surprise the signal was in fact rendering a full silhouette, without the specifics of the face. Amaya had already started directing the echolocating beam towards the researcher from several feet distance.

So if echolocation beam helps dolphins see full objects and surface features, then why didn’t the face show? The research team believe that dolphins may in fact recreate much more detailed mental images.

Photo Credits: SpeakDolphin.com