A young woman had sex with a dolphin who’s naughty, who subsequently seemed to commit suicide when their romance ended.
Margaret Howe Lovatt negotiated her way into being a member of a NASA-funded study to communicate with dolphins in the early 1960s.
Given that dolphins have brains at least as large as ours, the theory was that by studying how intelligent animals “speak” to one another, we may create ways for communicating with extraterrestrials.
Margaret, then 20, persuaded project head Gregory Bateson to allow her study with the dolphins kept on the Caribbean island of St Thomas by neurologist John Lilly.
Three dolphins had been there called as Margaret stated, Peter, Pamela and Sissy.
She subsequently said, “Sissy was the largest.”
“She was bossy and noisy, and she kind of ruled the show.” Pamela was a shy and scared young woman. Peter was a young man at the time. He was sexually maturing and a little naughty.”
Margaret and Peter had a special relationship. If she spent too much time with the other dolphins, he got envious, and the emotion was mutual to some extent.
Margaret told the BBC, “That connection of having to be together morphed into actually loving being together, and wanting to be together, and missing him when he wasn’t there.”
Although certain phrases were more difficult than others, Peter, more than his two colleagues, became fairly adept at creating English words by pushing air through his blowhole.
“‘M’ was a real challenge,” she recalled. “Hello, my name is. Greetings, ‘M’argaret. He ultimately rolled over to bubble it through the water as I focused on the ‘M’ sound. He put a lot of effort into that ‘M.’”
Peter and Margaret became closer and closer, and the bond became physical: “He was really fascinated by my body. He would come up to me and gaze at the back of my knee for a long time if I was sitting here with my legs in the water. He was fascinated by it and wanted to know how it worked.”
According to an infamous Hustler magazine feature, Lovatt used to provide Peter sexual relief anytime he grew too sexually stimulated to engage in her experiments.
“She explained, “It was just easier to embrace it and let it unfold.” “It was really valuable, and it was extremely gentle.
“Peter was aware that I was nearby, and Peter was aware that I was nearby… It was sexual on his side, but not sexual on mine — albeit pleasant.
“It’d simply become a part of what was going on, like an itch, and we’d just scratch it off and move on.”
“It appeared to me,” she said, “that it strengthened the relationship.” Not because of the sexual activity, but because you won’t have to break as often.
“And there was the end of it. I went to meet Peter and learn more about him. She explained, “That was a part of Peter.”
“[The sex] wasn’t secret,” she said, “because everyone could see it.”
However, NASA ultimately dispatched a young astronomer named Carl Sagan to report on John Lilly’s progress, and the tests were soon abandoned.
Margaret and Peter’s odd relationship came to an end with that.
Peter drowned in what looked to be a suicide shortly after being separated from Lovatt.
He appeared to stay submerged until he drowned, despite the fact that dolphins must surface to breathe on a regular basis.
This is not an isolated occurrence. Dolphin Project: “Dolphins are not automatic air-breathers like we are, as Ric O’Barry of the Organization for animal rights. It’s a conscious effort to each breath.
“If life becomes too intolerable, the dolphins breathe and fall down. The next breath you don’t take.”
For Peter, life was obviously too unpleasant.
“He’s not going to be unfortunate, he’s simply gone,” Margaret remarked. “And that’s all right.”
Let us know your opinions in the comments.
