Continuted Investigation into Dolphin Dealths in Peru - Part 1

Peru 12/3/12 Despite all our effort the mystery of the mass mortality of dolphins in Peru February thru April, 2012 remains unsolved. Various authorities have stated emphatically that the MME could not have been the result of seismic testing but they offer no alternatives. They are trying to prove a negative, though not really going to the effort to prove it. So as I sit on Delta 151 an hour out of Atlanta and five hours to Lima I'm hoping for some advance in three areas: interviews with the fishermen who had direct observation of the seismic testing last winter and spring, more data on the correlation between eating dolphin meat and the epidemic of diabetes rampant in San Jose, Peru, a survey of all villages along the Peruvian coast to determine the numbers of dolphins taken for food, and to join ORCA/Peru to sign an agreement with the mayor of San Jose for an outreach program to reach local fishermen advising them of the danger of eating dolphin meat. Finally to take the data from Peru and universalize it to impact Japan and all the other places where dolphin bush meat is an issue. I chat with a Peruvian women on the plane and am surprised at my fluency in Spanish. I feel comfortable in Latin culture. The language, attitudes, and games played that are so transparent in another society are more opaque in one's own. Being in a foreign culture enlightens understanding of one's own culture From 1966 - 1968 I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru. I surfed a lot. One of our favorite places was Cerro Azul, a bleak fishing village with a long pier pushing out from the desert shore. Cerro Azul has a great break And we were virtually alone on the waves generated by the passing of the Humbolt current up the west coast of South America from Antarctica. There were days when we would catch a rising swell, cut left and begin a 40 second run to the beach. Fins would appear in the wave. The first time it was a shock. I supposed it was a shark and my mind frantically calculated the distance to shore and the chances the shark would go after me. The animal rose toward the surface and as its back appeared came a whoosh and burst of spray from the top of what I then called its head. A dolphin!