Here is a creature that never sleeps, can see the invisible, and develops consciousness earlier in its life cycle than a human being does.

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Recently I had the chance to fulfil a dream of mine – not a particularly original one, as dreams go, but still – I went swimming with dolphins. Not in any barbaric dolphinarium (public aquariums are all barbaric affairs), of course, but in the Red Sea. We had to get up at the crack of dawn and spend three hours in a boat to reach the dolphins early enough to leave them in peace by the early afternoon – when they could get some rest. 

They were the six-foot-long spinner dolphins, named for their acrobatic displays that include jumping above the water line and, well, spinning around. Fidgety dolphins, so to speak. They wouldn’t jump out of the water much, although they did feel relaxed enough for two of them to begin copulating in our presence. On the whole – they didn’t seem to mind us being there.

The experience was surreal rather than mystical: the water was warm, unbelievably blue and perfectly clear. We were surrounded by the beautiful bodies of these champion swimmers, effortlessly appearing from nowhere and disappearing into the unseen depths. It was difficult to believe it wasn’t a dream. Still, what amazed me the most and left a truly lasting impression wasn’t the sights, but rather the sounds. When the dolphins swam close, all other noises were drowned out by the cacophony of their clicks, chirps and whistles.

A few months