Emmerson The Marine Biologist

The phone rings loudly, interrupting what was one of the best nights of sleep for me in Cabo Verde. I look at the clock, its 5:45. What could be so important to warrant a phone call? I sleepily ask “oi, tudu bien pomodi bu tchoma-m ke-li hora” (hey, how’s it going, why are you calling me this early)? The voice answers in English; it’s a friend of mine who speaks very well. She informs me of about 50 Dolphins that have washed upon a shore that is perhaps a 15 minute walk from my house. I am so excited; I can hardly contain myself, excited for several reasons. One, I am no longer deathly ill and feel up to the task of saving dolphin lives. Two, I am getting phone calls from locals informing me of events occurring within Sal Rei! The latter is quite possibly one of the most important things that could happen to me; this means I am, as Peace Corps loves to say, “integrating”.

As I arrive to the ghastly scene of approximately 60 dolphins washed upon the only rocks within 20 kilometers, I notice that most of the locals are just watching as one Italian woman tries to pull the dolphins back into the ocean. I immediately begin helping, waiting for each wave to come in, thus making the dolphins easier to pull. A Capeverdean woman walks up to me and says, “You know that the dolphins will just come back”, but this does not detour me from trying, and I tell her that I must try. I don’t know what sparked the people standing around watching, but the first help comes in the form of a 10 year-old boy named Emmerson. How fitting, this is the name of my favorite brother during my home-stay on Santiago. He helps me drag the dolphins one-by-one, into the ocean where I take over and swim them out as far as I can (roughly 300 yards).

One problem, what the woman has told me about the dolphins coming back was holding true. So the boy looks at me, and says “let’s find the biggest dolphin that still has a little life and put her in the ocean, she will call to the others”, brilliant! We find the biggest one and begin moving all the rocks in front of her, as to cause as little bodily damage as possible. We get her in the ocean and I swim her out far, by the time we get the next one in the ocean, a boat has shown up with two marine biologists who live here on Boa Vista. They help me and the others corral the dolphins that are in the ocean and prevent them from swimming back to shore.

After roughly three hours, we have 13 dolphins in open-ocean, thanks to the help of a boat and 6 other Capeverdeans. One of whom, turns out to be Emmerson’s father. We talk for a few minutes about his boy, and I tell him that he has a good kid who seems to care about the environment and understands the importance of conservation. He tells me that his boy wants to be a biologist! Which would explain the boys fondness to me, I had told him that I am an ecologist/biologist, and that I am here working with the Ministry of Environment. After all the work has been done, a few people show up from the Ministry, and ask me if I have done a count on the dolphins that were beyond saving. I tell them no but, I would do it now; 46 dead. This number puts a shadow over the minuscule number that are currently swimming, but I still feel accomplished, just slightly less so.

The article that was written up for “ASemana”, the Cape Verde newspaper, fails to mention any dolphins saved, but those of us that were there know that we were successful in saving the lives of a few dolphins. Thanks to by new buddy Emmerson, whom I plan to meet with again soon. Who knows, one day he may be an influential scientists, one can dream.

To: The Future Scientists

From: Aspiring Scientist