I n June 1994, rumors of a solitary dolphin on the Sinai coast of the Red Sea in Egypt traveled 400 kilometers and reached me at the University of Haifa. Solitary dolphins are notoriously elusive animals and difficult to track. If the rumor was true, I would finally have the opportunity to complete the missing link in my research and conduct a continuous behavioral study on a solitary dolphin. I packed my diving and photographic gear and drove to Nuweiba, a town on the Sinai coast. Nuweiba Mezeina is a picturesque and tranquil oasis, complete with palm trees growing at the water s edge.
Some inhabitants still draw water from wells with a rope and a bucket.
Colorfully dressed children, their skin darkened from sun and salt water, surround the tourists all day long, hawking beaded and braided bracelets. The villagers, members of the Mezeina Beduin tribe, once made their living from fishing, and many of them are strong swimmers. Marriages among close relatives is common in the village, and some of the villagers suffer from a genetic defect resulting in deafness, and have developed their own private sign language. For many years, researchers have been familiar with the phenomenon of a solitary dolphin who leaves the pod and seeks human contact. The first such encounters were related in the works of Greek and Roman philosophers such as Oppian, Aristotle, Pliny and Aelian.