Since the beginning of recorded history we have been given
many accounts of shipwrecked and drowning Humans being
saved by Dolphins. The earliest that we know of being the
Greek poet ARION in 600 BC

In about 70 AD the Roman naturalist PLINY `The Elder' wrote,in his great work `NATURAL HISTORY', about the true story of
a poor boy who was befriended by a wild Dolphin who carried him
across the water to school each day. One night, the poor boy died.
When the Dolphin found that he was gone, never to come back,
realizing that he was dead, his empathy was so deep that he himself
died of sorrow. Pliny writes: "I should have been ashamed to tell this
story were it not that it has been written about already by MAECENAS
& FABIANUS & FLAVIOUS ALFIUS and many other notable people!"

Numerous through history are accounts of Dolphins helping to navigate boats.

In New Zealand from 1888 for 24 years, a solitary male Bottlenose Dolphin guided every boat safely across the dangerous Cook Strait, day & night. In 1978.

Four South African fishermen, Kobus Stander and 3 others, were lost in dense fog in treacherous waters, with a visibility of 2 meters. Suddenly, 4 Dolphins surrounded them & began nudging the boat to the left. Realizing that the Dolphins were helping them, Kobus steered the boat to the left just in time to hear and, in a gap in the fog, see waves crashing on treacherous rocks. One more minute they would have been smashed to pieces! The Dolphins continued to nudge the boat for 90 minutes at which time they circled the boat indicating for them to stop. When the fog lifted, miraculously they found they were back at their home bay!

One of the most extraordinary accounts of wild Dolphins seeking out the company of Humans is the story of OPO, on New Zealand's OPONONI beach. In 1955 the young female Dolphin's mother was shot by a delinquent Human's rifle. Possibly hoping her mother might reappear, OPO, as she became named, remained in the bay, gradually approaching people on the beach, to everybody's absolute delight! OPO especially loved the children & would swim between their legs & take them for a ride on her back, as well as playing wonderful ball games. Becoming a major tourist attraction, bringing up to 14,000 visitors at a time to this remote village, an act of parliament was passed to protect her. Tragically, the very next day, on March 8th, 1956, OPO was killed by a Humans fishing with dynamite. She was buried with full Maori Tangi ceremonial rites.

n 1960, off the coast of Grand Bahama island, Yvonne Bliss fell overboard from her boat. After many hours of being out of sight of land, exhausted from trying to swim in heavy currents, she became terrified in her awareness of a large animal close to her that she assumed to be a shark & kept moving away as it approached her. Realizing that it was in fact a Dolphin, she noticed that it had `pushed' her out of the strong currents & into a tidal stream carrying her towards shore. The Dolphin kept with her guiding her to the beach. In her words: "As I turned towards the shore, stumbling, losing my balance & saying a prayer of thanks, my rescuer took off".