Dolphinet is a project initiated by Nicola Swietkowiak and Sasha Kagansky that takes place in several locations at the same time, Berlin (Germany) , Hawaii (USA), and Vladivostok (Russia). Joined by one of the pioneer researchers of the Marine mammals communication, Michael Hyson, Greenpeace co-founding member Michael Bailey, among others, an audio communication and web portal has been collaboratively designed, which should allow dolphins and whales to send and receive audio messages, in real-time, across participating venues and selected wildlife locations around the world. Through this web portal, the team plans to connect natural and ectopic dolphin habitats. Pending the results of this communication, they intend to further expand the network to include humans, dolphins, and whales located distally around the world, allowing cultural and research enlightenment embracing highly intelligent non-human species.
In the pilot phase of this initiative, the team is testing audio equipment to collect and receive a broad range of audio signals to mimic telephone communication. The water-internet-water sequence was adapted to the wavelengths transmitted and received by the sonic organs of the free-living dolphins and whales in Hawaii. Previous attempts to establish behavioural reactions to the playback audio of the recorded voices of the dolphins were not absolutely conclusive. The Dolphinet team expects that the ability to transmit voices in real time will be the next step forward to assure reactions as there would be synchronisation of the conversation, which is essential for the communication development. The expectation is that this initiative will raise awareness, compassion, and understanding of large water mammals, and potentially help rehabilitate them, alleviating the effects of their psychological isolation. Furthermore, this experiment could lead to the breakthroughs in the understanding of their communication, and even allow formal deciphering of the first non-human languages in the future.