I’ve been into telling dolphin stories lately, so you get another one for this week’s column. This story didn’t happen aboard my charter boat, but was a story told to me by a lady who used to work for me, after she returned to work from a vacation with her husband. We’ll call her Sally.

While on a boat excursion to swim with dolphins, Sally had to return early to the boat because she had health issues and tired quickly. When she came aboard, the skipper looked a bit nervous and asked her if everything was okay. She explained that she tires easily due to health issues and asked him why he was worried about her.

He told her a story from several months back when another lady came clambering back aboard early and she was madder than a pestered hornet.

She said to the skipper: “Look, you have a perverted dolphin out there and I’m not going back in the water. This one dolphin swam right up to me several times and nudged my left breast with its snout. It was awful and I’m not going to put up with this.”

The skipper was perplexed and said, “I don’t know what to say, ma’am. You aren’t exactly that dolphin’s type.”

The lady was not appeased and was still angry when she left the boat at the end of the excursion.

A few months later, the skipper got a letter from that lady. It said the incident had made her curious, once she got over being angry. She went to the doctor and was diagnosed with early breast cancer in her left breast. She was operated on and they believe they got it all.

The lady told the skipper in the letter that she now firmly and fervently believes the dolphin was telling her about it and saved her life.

We know dolphins have bio-sonar. I doubt we really know the full extent of their bio-sonar capabilities. Perhaps it can detect things in other critters and in prey that tell it not to eat that prey. Perhaps a dolphin has other capabilities that helped it detect the lady’s breast cancer.

I am convinced that we need to get over our superiority complex and learn from critters like dolphins and others. We might live longer or live better, or both.

— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.