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Dolphin Jumps Again with Artificial Fin

Posted by michael on from the laser-not-included dept.

Ant writes "This Yahoo! News story mentions Fuji, a mother dolphin that lost 75 percent of her tail due to a mysterious disease, being able to jump again with the help of what is believed to be the world's first artificial fin. The 34-year-old dolphin held at Japan's largest aquarium in the southern island of Okinawa wears the rubber fin for about 20 minutes a day allowing her to jump and to swim at the same speed of other dolphins."

7 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. First Porpoise! by Bob+McCown · · Score: 5, Funny

    First Porpoise!

  2. Oh great ... by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not looking forward to artificial fin chunks in my Tuna sandwich

  3. Hmmm... by MonoSynth · · Score: 5, Funny

    I expected that dolphin to be red with 'Marlboro', 'Shell' and 'Vodafone' painted on its other fins...

  4. I for one, welcome... by felonius+maximus · · Score: 5, Funny

    our bionic dolphin masters.

  5. More Photos from the Aquarium Pages by Tuqui · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are more photos in the page of the Aquarium (in Japanese) Chura Umi Aquarium

  6. Re:Feel goodism by brian0918 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " Like it or not, the weak are supposed to die out."

    Uhh... says who? I think you're taking that "survival of the fittest" a little too literally. There is no direction to evolution. In the long run it might be the case that the fittest survive most often, but this isn't necessarily the case on a per-individual scale.

    In any case, intelligent life has changed all this. Does this mean it's bad for evolution? No. It just means the "survival of the fittest" phrase needs some changing.

  7. Yeah. that's great but... by rqqrtnb · · Score: 5, Funny

    now she has to be balanced and rotated every 10,000 miles.