Olena Komogorova: dolphins are big children, they make us happy

Author: Natalia YartsevaPhoto: InterMedia consulting

"You come every morning with children to this beach. Do you want to see dolphins?" - a man, sitting not far from us, speaks. "Yeah", - yell the children. "Over there, look, they swim. They are very close", - a solid man waves a hand. And he smiles childly. A "smile is a dolphin effect", - daughter notices profoundly. We do not argue. Simply we gaze far happily. 

And then we go to Dolphin Rescue Center to write down an interview with the trainer of Odessa Dolphinarium by Olena Komogorova.

-   Olena, is it difficult to train dolphins? And what is the most important in this profession?  

- (Laughs). We do not have a concept of training. We do not train - we develop, stimulate natural curiosity and natural playfulness of dolphin. In fact they are like adult children - they are playong all the time. In the sea - they play with water, water-plants, fish, and play with each other. I saw frequently how dolphins, eating fill, began to tease gulls. They will throw out fish upwards and go on tails, will throw out - and do flips.  All those tricks are shown at our performances.  But if a game becomes uninteresting for a dolphin, he will lie down on a bottom and will "hang up" there - it is impossible to compel him. 

Dolphin for us is not a simple pet. It is a friend, partner, both comrade and child, both teacher and student.  Even if you know about them much, they surprise all the time.

What we are engaged in, it is difficult to call the work, it is life.  And what is the essential thing in the life? It is love. Thoughts, intuition and curiosity of trainer are also important. Intuition prompts what must be done to satisfy my curiosity:  «Can a dolphin physically do what I thought of?»  Fantasy is a necessary component.  And yet it is a permanent boast, desire. You have to move forward any moment. They simply feel sick without new performances, tricks and toys. Children, in a word. 

-  Helen, when we look at the dolphins swimming with children, it is evident that each of them is getting its own way - one of them sharply and unexpectedly splashes water, other, vice versa, softly and gently hugs a child with its flippers. Did you teach them?

 -  Well that you! Teaching is impossible - for every dolphin has the character, temperament, and feeling of life.  Perhaps, there is only one common feature - all of dolphins can be called big children and play during all their life. They are friendly, curious and glad to any human. It is the most important. We come to them with our sorrows, problems, and leave quiet, glad and smiling past our ears.  They give us feeling of holiday, gladness and childhood.  Why? It is a riddle. But it takes a place.

Ancient philosophers told, "The dolphins are endowed by nature with a gift that many philosophers can not find, that is a capacity for unselfish friendship".

- Doctors recommend dolphinotherapy to children with nervous diseases, disease of locomotor system, and a number of other diseases. Do they help really?  

 I am a sceptic, as well as you. Earlier I thought about Dolphinotherapy somehow so - well, think, positive emotions, emotional unloading... But when I see a child of three years old, smiling for the first time in his life to a dolphin, and reaction of his mother, there is a revolution of consciousness.  Name it a miracle. Or something, that science cannot explain yet. 

...Although, do not throw down positive emotions from accounts. Know that even the least positive changes in the health of a child give an enormous stimulus to its parents - not to drop a hand, try, try, and fight. Parents in the period of treatment become quieter, free from permanent problems, they see that life can be other - light and glad.  And when they understand that the situation can be assessed in other way, your problem is decided.

Going back to our babies, I want to say here:  while they are with a dolphin, they simply forget about everything. They admire, enthuse, and pet them. And become happier. It is important in fact!

 - We are now in a Dolphin Rescue Center. Tell how do sick dolphins get to you and what do they do after convalescence? 

 -  We have here now two dolphins; they are a little one, Beetle and a grown one, Richard. They were found ashore more dead than alive; we arrived in time and rescued them.  How does it get?  A man rings to dolphinarium and says, for example, that he saw a dolphin close from a bank in the district of «Chernomorka». A brigade arrives there. If the animal needs help and we can render it, we take a dolphin here. We do analyses, inspections, diagnostics, treat, help, as we can. Beetle, for example, had four gastric ulcers.  In spite of the fact that he is quite young , wounds are healing long, so that we can not let him go in a high sea - he has still had changes of gastric juice.  So, probably he will remain with us, will become an artist and will be under the permanent supervision of veterinaries and watching over trainers. Maybe, here he will build its family and have a kid, like Lily and Gavryusha a year ago.

Olena, you are talking about dolphins, like about humans - they build families, happiness is found. Maybe, they fell in love like humans?

  - Maybe, they don't fell in love, but they have priorities exactly. When little Norman borned , we were simply shocked. Judge yourself:  it was the day of delivering, a female is young, it does not simply understand what takes place, there is much of blood, her eyes are closed, she poked into our hands ... And he stayed all the time close to her. When a kid appeared, Gavryusha very quiveringly, very neatly, very gently took Lily on the back, raised above a surface and started swimming very-very slowly - enabled it to relax, rest, lie down on him. We when saw it, we all cried. Although, in a week Gavryusha felt in love with other dolphin female - he began to look after and to take the care of her with the same persistence.

- It is exactly known that dolphins are clever, playful, kind and penetrating. Nevertheless, scientists do not stop to study their abilities. What new has science known about dolphins lately?

  - In spite of the fact that dolphins are close to us, a man knows about them very few. They possess surprising capabilities. For example, dolphins can accompany ships at the sea for a long time. It is known. But, taking into account physical information of dolphin, scientists came to a conclusion that these mammals can speed up of 8-10 kmph.  And a ship swims considerably quicker. How can it be?  Many years passed while the solution was found. It is in the structure of skin of dolphin.  When it swims there is practically no resistance of water, dolphin uses its force. By other words, dolphin in the layer of water is like a wet soap between palms.  

About sonar - a night sight of dolphin - many know. Sonars are created on all of ships and submarine boats following the example of the sonar of dolphin. It must be said that the sonar of dolphins is much more compact.  One can not tell exactly how many new discoveries the dolphins will bring to us.