Connecting With ‘Dolphins’ Through Imax

While making the Imax movie “Dolphins,” marine biologist Kathleen Dudzinski got as close as a human can get to the experience of being a dolphin with the help of an underwater motorized scooter. Watching Dudzinski in a remarkable water ballet with a pod of the Atlantic spotted dolphins off the coast of the Bahamas is breathtaking in its beauty and simplicity.

The Imax camera captures Dudzinski as she shifts her position underwater various times with the dolphins following her lead.

“They were all with me,” recalls Dudzinski, who studies dolphin communication in the Bahamas and in Japan. “Then they started leading me around. To be able to see that and be part of it is just a gift.”

Narrated by Pierce Brosnan and featuring original music by Sting, “Dolphins,” which opens Friday in Imax theaters around Southern California, is the latest production from MacGillivray Freeman Films, which also produced the Imax hits “Everest” and “The Living Sea.” The film first opened in March and is currently playing in more than 60 Imax and large-format theaters worldwide; the film has grossed $35 million to date.

“Dolphins,” directed by Greg MacGillivray, attempts to shed light on these beautiful, intelligent mammals while dispelling the myths created by such TV series as “Flipper,” that dolphins are just benevolent creatures seeking human companionship--sort of an underwater version of Lassie.

The 40-minute, large-format film features wild Atlantic spotted dolphins; common dolphins, which are seen off the coast of California; dusky dolphins of the Southern Hemisphere; and a rare “ambassador” bottlenose dolphin named JoJo that lives in the waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands, near Cuba and Haiti.

JoJo is one of a tiny number of “ambassador” dolphins in the world today that seek out human companionship. “I think there have been 60 recorded [social dolphins] throughout history,” says naturalist Dean Bernal, who has a 16-year relationship with JoJo.

“We have seven in existence that are very sociable dolphins. JoJo is probably the most social, the most inquisitive and the most diverse that we know. I am working with the other ones in Egypt, Japan, Italy, Norway and Ireland.”

Bernal’s job is not only to study the interaction that takes place between humans and these dolphins but also to “try to protect the dolphins from human interests, whether it be commercial or physical interests of people trying to go in and grab it, pet it, poke it.”

Protection Through JoJo Dolphin Project

To protect JoJo, Bernal has set up the JoJo Dolphin Project, giving the small bottlenose dolphin legal and medical protection.

Though JoJo comes to the shoreline to visit with humans, he will only allow Bernal to touch him, as well as give him medical aid when he’s been hit by boats and water skis or has become trapped in turtle nets.

“We have built up 16 years of trust,” Bernal says. “I can handle him near the beach, but he won’t let anybody else go in and touch him and pet him or they will get a bite or a nick.”

JoJo loved being filmed; in one scene he swims straight to the camera squeaking and squawking. “He sees his reflection in the dome [of the camera lens],” Bernal says. “He is very self-aware and he starts talking to himself.

“He is a natural treasure of [the Turks and Caicos Islands], and he is the most highly protected dolphin in the world,” says Bernal, who has also been developing national parks and marine reserves on those islands to protect JoJo and other dolphins in the area.

In 1987, JoJo was considered a liability to tourism on Turks and Caicos Islands. “The hotels were advertising him as a pet,” he says. But too many tourists were trying to pet him and shove things down his blow hole. JoJo would defend himself and injured guests ended up suing the hotels.

“The two options were to shoot the dolphin or have him removed to captivity. We started a campaign to make him a national treasure.”

Unlike the other sociable dolphins, JoJo is also a member of a pod of dolphins that he swims with when Bernal is not around. Bernal has also been accepted in JoJo’s pod. “The dolphins slow down for us,” Bernal says.

While he and JoJo have been swimming together, Bernal has witnessed the dolphin fall asleep next to him. “He’ll shut down one-half of his brain and stay on one side of my body,” Bernal says. “He’ll sleep for about 45 minutes.” One-half of a dolphin’s brain must remain awake to regulate the breathing. “Then what will happen is he’ll go to my other side and rest that half of the brain.”

Bernal and Dudzinski make presentations in schools to educate children about dolphins. They both have seen an increase in e-mails to them about dolphins since the film has opened in other areas of the country.

Dudzinski has been studying dolphins for more than 13 years using the mobile-video-acoustic equipment she designed to record their sounds and behavior. The film illustrates how dolphins use chirps, squeaks, whistles, squawks and clicks as well as the nonverbal ballet to communicate.

Even though she is a scientist, occasionally Dudzinski admits the kid inside of her gets excited when she’s studying these beautiful mammals.

“I had a dolphin come up to me and start rubbing me with its pectoral fin,” she says. “These are greeting behaviors I have seen [between dolphins]. I can’t put that feeling into words [when we make a connection]. When it happens, it is just thrilling.”

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“Dolphins” opens Friday at the California Science Center Imax Theater in Los Angeles and at the Edwards Imax Theaters in Irvine, Ontario and Valencia.