THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SHIHAB RATTANS, CNN ANCHOR: Researchers are only now beginning to understand how dolphins have survived so successfully for millions of years and, more importantly, what we can do to make sure they stay around for at least another million.
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: In our continuing at the life of dolphins in southern Australia, there is Melody Horril of Australia's Network Ten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELODY HORRIL, NETWORK TEN, AUSTRALIA: For the past few weeks, we've told you the amazing story of Jacques, a solitary dolphin who befriended a small group of people, including myself. We explained how Jacques was continually facing the hazards of living in one of most polluted waterways in Adelaide, south Australia.
Recent research has shown that his home is riddled with manmade toxins which can be especially poisonous to baby dolphins. In this week's episodes of "A Dance With a Dolphin," we take a look at how those toxins finally take their toll on the life of our friend Jacques.
(voice-over): With our focus so firmly fixed on interacting with Jacques, it was easy to forget the hazards of the Port River.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be careful, there's hooks in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) so don't grab them with your hand.
HORRIL: This incident in 1991 was at least the third time he'd become painfully ensnared in fishing line and hooks.
It could have led to a lethal infection. But, despite his trust in us, Jacques wasn't keen to become a patient in a crude surgical procedure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to keep that other hand away, Miller (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least he thinks it's funny.
HORRIL: With the light fading and the camera unfortunately not there, success. Steve (ph) and I couldn't wait to tell the story. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just thought, well, it's now or never. And I stood out, and I was about this deep in water. I grabbed his tail flip and just sort of hooked it under my arm here and just hung on. And he just flapped like crazy, and said to Melody, quick, grab the scissors!
And it took Melody a few seconds to be able to get the scissors because my arm was going around everywhere. And she got the scissors, and then Melody had to sort of grab him, spin him around and I sort of had ahold of him. And then we were worried about him drowning, so I had to lift him up with my mate so he could have a breath.
Once Melody had the scissors, he realized it was like an operation, and he slapped me across the head with his tail -- whack! And nearly knocked me off balance; just kept hanging on. And Mel just grabbed the stuff and...
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) and there was -- he's staying about 10 meters away and hanging back and almost looking at us and though, you know, why did do you that to me?
HORRIL: But sadly human society was doing much more to him than he could ever imagine. In fact, his home is considered one of the most polluted waterways in Australia.
Unfortunately, there's a whole range of different pollutants going into this water. They range from heated water, of heat (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from power stations, various forms of industrial pollution, all kind of things coming down the storm water system; probably illegal dumping happening to a fair extent, and sewage pollution as well.
HORRIL: The Port River was once a swampy mud bank filled with mangroves. The vegetation was so dense that Adelaide's founder couldn't find where the river opened to the sea. Over the years thousands of trees were cleared to make way for south Australia's major shipping port. But more recently the port river has become an industrial hub, and it's that development which has left the water with riddled with highly-toxic pollutants. Separate research by Greenpeace and Dr. Mike Bosley (ph) has found extremely high levels of poisonous chemicals in the bodies of Port River dolphins.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The combined effects can included things like cancer, immune system disruption and reproductive disruption. It makes them more susceptible to disease, which also can reduce the survival capacity of the community.
HORRIL: Most of the casualties are babies. This was one of the most tragic sites Dr. Bosley has ever witnessed. A (UNINTELLIGIBLE) baby lost her first calf and was overwhelmed with grief. She carried the infant's body around for days. The calf was probably poisoned by what scientists call download toxins, passed on through the mother's milk.
This youngster was rescued in the Port River shallows. He couldn't fight off the infection from a large abscess on his side and died in the arms of his rescuers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To what extent we've got any room to move is hard to know. If we keep killing the sea grasses, if we keep putting heavy metals and PCBs and other sorts of toxic chemicals into the water, I don't think the dolphins are going to be able to survive much longer here. They'll either die or leave.
HORRIL (on camera): And believe it or not, there are even more sinister threats to the Port River dolphins, not just from human industry, but from the ugly side of human nature.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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