Curiously enough, the dolphins had long known of the impending destruction of the planet Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger; but most of their communications were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tidbits, so they eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own means shortly before the Vogons arrived.

The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backward somersault through a hoop while whistling the “Star-Spangled Banner,” but in fact the message was this:

So long and thanks for all the fish.”

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

And while there’s nothing immoral in eating anything if/when it’s necessary, it becomes a valid moral question whether we should kill any other living thing when we evolve in skill and infrastructure to a point where we don’t have to. 

Also, to put to rest the sophomoric “We’re a part of nature” argument, the emphasis is not on nature but on the WE are part of nature.  Meaning our own skills, knowledge, and abilities within nature need to be taken into consideration.  There is no default value system to the world.  Therefore each creature will have its own within it.  Saying “We are part of nature” does not let anyone off the hook; it’s proof that we own the hook, line and sinker.  C’mon, Summer Seale, this isn’t hard.

Then there’s their somewhat stiff movements: I’m used to videos of them being more fluid, where their whole body drives them, rather than merely their tails – when they swim, their body *flows* through the water: it’s not that they’re driven by their tail wiggling.

Also the viewing distance seems rather far, but that might just be that I’m used to murkier coastal water.

Then there’s the viral-marketing aspect: mentions of the specific camera, and the timing of the video “beats” also seems a bit too close to perfect: ~1:45 immersion ~3:30 end; then 30 secs of credits for ~4:00.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xjN4mxSCCI is the closest legitimate-looking one I could find. It *is* similar, and their movements are less fluid than you typically see when they’re playing: makes sense, it’s a different gait.

I guess time will tell.

[Edit: either way it's impressive: but I think as a rendering it's even more impressive than if it's live. Less impressive for the camera manufacturers, of course, so I strongly suspect it's live but set up, rather than rendered, just because the camera manufacturers care about their rep :)]

http://ih2.redbubble.net/image.9864845.0544/pp,375×360.jpg

That’s really something that boggles my mind. Do you look at a painting by a renaissance painter and start ranting about how it was the oppression of the common people which got the gold to pay the painter to depict beauty? Seriously…if that’s the way you view everything, then everything is corrupted, nothing can be appreciated just even for a single moment, and there’s no discussion left anymore, is there? I mean, when I start hearing Silent Night, I don’t start ranting about all the Jews and Muslims who were killed by Crusaders during the Crusades.

Yes, those people were fishing. So what? It’s done every day since the dawn of humanity to get food. Life’s cruel that way. I can, for a moment, forget about that and appreciate the non-destructive parts of life as well, just as I can look at a star and *not* have to think for a moment about the impending possible civilizations it may one day wipe out when it goes nova.

It’s a question of perspective. I enjoyed the video, the dolphins were gorgeous and lovely, and possibly enjoying the hunt as well. It’s nature. We’re part of it.

Edit: Sorry for the rant. =) But cmon…this is just silly….