In August, newspapers in Gaza announced that their navy captured a dolphin spying for Israel. They said that the dolphin had been ‘brainwashed’, ‘stripped of its will’ and ‘turned into a murderer’ by the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency. Spying for Israel is a death penalty offense in Gaza, but there is no word as to whether the dolphin will be put on trial. Several other governments in the region have also claimed to have caught animal spies. In 2007, the government of Iran said they ‘arrested 14 squirrels trying to enter the country illegally’ to spy on their nation’s nuclear facilities but ‘thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services, they failed to complete their mission.’ The Iranian government determined that the squirrels were spying for England based on their ‘cunning methods.’ Hmmm. Do you think it’s true? You know, the English are very good at espionage, and I hear that there are a lot of squirrels in England.
ARE YOU REALLY EATING DOLPHIN WHEN YOU ORDER MAHI MAHI?
Yes and No. There are 2 very different animals in the sea called ‘dolphins’, one is a mammal and one is a fish. The sea mammal called dolphin, also called a porpoise, has lungs and needs to come to the surface periodically for air. The dolphin fish, also known as mahi mahi, is a fish. It has scales and gills and does not need to come to the surface for air. The sea mammal called dolphin is completely unrelated biologically to the dolphin fish. The two do not look alike. Sea mammal dolphins are cute, intelligent, and playful. You see them quite often in movies and TV shows. The dolphin fish is homely and stupid. Nobody makes movies about them. Mahi mahi appears on the menus of lots of restaurants. It is understandable that many people are confused about this. I have corrected confused waiters at Spenger’s (Berkeley’s largest and oldest seafood restaurant) about this. In conclusion, you are not eating ‘Flipper’ when you order mahi mahi.
