Dolphins do this on and off during the day because they don't breathe automatically and would suffocate otherwise. He was a creature who I assumed understood what kids were feeling. In science classes, you learn they are mammals who live in the sea but breathe air like us. They are out of their element, and kids and teens can identify with that. Dolphins represent youth and freedom, says professor Marshall Fishwick, who specializes in popular culture at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
Dolphins are poetic.
That leap of joy is what makes us love them so. The reason may be even more basic. In other words, we like them because they like us. Thomas White, a professor at Loyola Marymount University in L.A., is part of the Wild Dolphin Project, which studies human interaction with dolphins in their habitat. Bob Talbot, renowned marine photographer and cinematographer whose undersea footage is used in Flipper , has encountered many of the 30 species of dolphins.