Human-Dolphin Marriage

Once upon a time, in Tuvalu, there lived a young Tuvaluan fisherman. One morning he noted that someone had raided his coconut plantation next to the seas, cutting off the young fronds of the palm. Then a few weeks later the theft happened again, and again. Though he investigated and kept watch he didn’t catch anyone, but he noted that the thefts occurred always on a full moon night.

So, by the next full moon, he hid among the trees in his plantation before nightfall to see who the thief was. The moment the moon rose, he heard voices of many people. He rushed towards them and saw indeed that they were cutting the palm fronds. He gave chase, caught one young woman while the rest ran into the sea. To his utter amazement they turned into dolphins the moment they dived into the waves.

photo from Rainbow Production

Anyway, he took the young lassie back to his village, made her his wife, and she gave him two sons. But one day she fell very ill and asked her husband for permission to visit her family in the sea. She farewelled her children, went to the beach where the dolphins were already waiting for her, dove in and of course turned into a dolphin and swam away.

Flash forward to 2005.

In Eilat, a beach resort in Israel, a 41-year old British tourist, Sharon Tendler, has been visiting a dolphin for the last 15 years. In fact she visited the resort 2 to 3 times a year just to see the sea mammal. She found and still finds peace being with the dolphin. OK, last week she bit the bullet last week, asked the dolphin’s trainer if she could marry flipper, and strangely in the land of the Deuteronomic King Josiah who would have considered such an idea as an abomination and undoubtedly have her stoned to death, the wedding was approved.

The following is a straight extract from The Age of Melbourne:

The wedding took place on Wednesday, with the bride - wearing a white dress and watched by amazed spectators - walking down the dock to where the groom was waiting in the water.

She kissed him, to the cheers of the spectators and then, after the ceremony was sealed with some mackerels, was tossed into the water so she could swim away with her new husband.

"I'm the happiest girl on earth," the bride was quoted as saying. "I made a dream come true. And I am not a pervert."

Incidentally, Wikipedia says that only 3 mammals indulge in recreational sex, or sex for enjoyment rather than procreation. These mammals are humans (thank goodness), the pygmy chimpanzees or bonobos, and dolphins.