[color=limegreen][font=century Gothic]..i'd lyk to share it 2 ol of u..^_^..a fisherman has been saved by a group of dolphins..read the article for further info's..^_^..i hve read it on the daily inquirer and search it in net..and i found it very amazing.. [/color][/font] [quote][color=crimson]PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines — He needed a miracle to survive the cold and choppy waters, and he got it in the form of dolphins and whales. Tuna fisherman Ronnie Dabal was fishing in Puerto Princesa Bay early on Dec. 8 when a squall turned his small motorized boat upside down. It was about 8 a.m. He clambered atop a small Styrofoam board and battled the punishing waves for hours, growing desperate as the day wore on. How could he imagine then that he would survive in the most astonishing manner? Dabal, 35, spoke with the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Dec. 9 in the company of his wife and representatives of nongovernmental organizations who authenticated his story. “I began to pray when I felt my strength draining away. I couldn’t continue paddling with my hands because I was getting so tired, and I was about to pass out,” he said. The fisherman recalled floating at sea throughout that Monday, paddling against the tide in a vain effort to get to shore, and feeling his arms and legs growing soggy. Soon, a swarm of tiny crustaceans locally called “bugto” began nibbling on his softened flesh. “There were so many of them and I couldn’t cope because I was very weak,” he said, showing the bite marks on his limbs. “I started to bleed. I became afraid that sharks would smell my blood and appear at any time.”[/color] [b]To the rescue[/b] [color=seagreen]Dabal’s hopes of reaching dry land slowly vanished as darkness fell and blanketed him. [b]And then, from out of nowhere, a pod of around 30 dolphins appeared: “Dumating ‘yung mga dolphins. Ang dami nila!” [Dolphins came. There were so many of them!] A pair of whales about 10 meters long also appeared and flanked him: “Tapos, may lumapit na dalawang balyena. Dun sila sa tigkabilang tabi ko lumalangoy.” [Then, two whales approached. They swam with me, one on each side.][/b] Dabal, a father of two, swore it was not his mind playing tricks on him as he lay weak and still atop his tiny life raft, which the dolphins alternately nudged with their fins to shore. As this was happening, the rest of the pod stayed close, around a meter away, apparently trying to make sure no harm would come to him, Dabal said. He said the whales kept to his side, swimming along with the dolphins. “Based on his description of the animals, the dolphins were probably spinners and the whales were most likely pilot whales,” Dr. Terry Aquino, a local cetacean specialist, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.[/color][/quote] [spoiler][b]In The Know: Dolphins to the rescue[/b] [color=maroon]On Oct. 30, 2004, a pod of dolphins saved a group of lifeguards from being mauled by a shark in New Zealand. According to reports by the New Zealand Herald and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Rob Howes and three women lifeguards (who included his 15-year-old daughter) were on a training swim off Ocean Beach when seven bottlenose dolphins swam toward them and circled them. When an opening in the circle occurred, Howes and one of the women drifted away from the group. One large dolphin detached itself from the circle and dove a few meters away from them. Howes turned, waiting to see where the dolphin would surface. That’s when he saw the three-meter-long great white shark. Per Howes’ account, the shark started moving toward the two other women and the dolphins “went into hyperdrive.” They herded the swimmers together, circling four to eight centimeters from them, and slapping the water with their tails for about 40 minutes. The shark left when a rescue boat neared. [b]California[/b] A pod of bottlenose dolphins also saved the life of a surfer in California, according to TODAYShow.com. On Aug. 28, 2007, Todd Endris was sitting on his surfboard at Marina State Park off Monterey when a great white, estimated at four to five meters long, hit him but failed to bite. On its second try, the shark clamped down on Endris’ torso, peeling the skin off his back. It then tried to swallow his right leg, biting the limb to the bone. Endris used his left leg to kick at the shark until it let go. That’s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins showed up and circled him, protecting him from further attacks from the shark. Endris got back on his board and caught a wave that brought him back to shore. He was able to surf again after nearly four months.[/color][/spoiler]

Last edited by pink_yeng (2008-12-24 22:13:18)