We have looked at how dolphins live and act in the past two issues. Now let’s see just a few of the many varieties of dolphins in the world.
Bottle-nosed dolphins are large, up to 13½ feet long and weighing as much as 1,400 pounds. Their name comes from their long, round snout that looks like it would fit in a bottle. Many of these dolphins are found in the warm waters off the coasts of Georgia and Florida, where they may swim with the large groups of people who swim and play in the water there.
Spotted dolphins are found throughout warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean. They have a variety of coloration with black spots on a white background, though they all start life with no spots at all. They are friendly dolphins, normally swimming in groups of 5-50 animals. They can swim fast and like to follow boats in the Atlantic, riding the waves created by the boats.
The spinners are the most acrobatic of dolphins, sometimes rotating up to seven times after a leap into the air, before dropping back onto the water with a big splash. One called the Hawaiian spinner dolphin lives mostly around Hawaii. They are nocturnal animals, doing their hunting during the night and resting near shore during the day. Tourists used to take advantage of this to swim with the dolphins near shore, but this has been banned as it was discovered that it is upsetting to them. You can imagine why it would be upsetting to have their rest interrupted every day!
The Indus River dolphins are very unusual, living in some rivers of India. They are nearly blind, their tiny eyes not seeing much more than darkness and light. They are from seven to eight feet long and have long, bony snouts lined with sharp teeth. Their snouts make up about one-fifth of their body length. They sweep these snouts from side to side along rivers in the muddy bottoms, also using their “echo systems” to direct them to their seafood meals.
The Lord has made such an interesting variety of animals, hasn’t He? And He has made each of the people in this world just as varied. Some people, like the Indus River dolphin, don’t have eyes that work like other people’s eyes work. Maybe that’s because the Lord has special things to show them that they wouldn’t see if they had “normal” eyes. Sometimes a blind person can “see” the Lord and heavenly things much better than some of us who have eyes, because they aren’t distracted by the things we see in this world. Whatever you may have or don’t have, you can ask the Lord to use you, just as you are, for His glory. That’s the only life worth living!
Messages of God’s Love 4/2/2023