Dolphin pod pays respects

13th September 2008

KIM DE LEIJER

A pod of about 16 dolphins was yesterday seen swimming towards Napier's Marineland, just a day after the tourist attraction's last dolphin died at the age of 38 years.

It is not the first time dolphins have been seen marking the death of one of their kind at Marineland.

Jools Topp, half of the Kiwi comic duo The Topp Twins, was staying at Te Pania Hotel when she witnessed the pod swim towards the shore. They leapt high out of the water before forming a circle opposite Marineland, then headed back out to sea.

Jools said it was ``as if the dolphins had come to collect Kelly's spirit and bring it back to sea ... it was the most incredible thing we've seen in our lives'.

Kelly died at Marineland early on Thursday from what investigators believe was stomach cancer. A mandarin-sized tumour was found in the base of her stomach during a post-mortem examination.

I-site administration assistant Sherilyn Hughes, who also saw the pod of dolphins yesterday, said a similar phenomenon followed the death of Kelly's poolmate, Shona, in 2006.

She believes it was more than a coincidence. Meanwhile tributes to Kelly are flowing from throughout New Zealand.

Department of Conservation (DOC) East Coast Hawke's Bay conservator Peter Williamson said the staff had done a great job caring for Kelly and all the animals at the marine zoo.

MP Russell Fairbrother said his link with Marineland went back to Kelly's arrival in 1974 when his son worked there as a volunteer. Earlier this year he took several of his political colleagues on a tour of the facility.

Kelly's death was a ``tremendous loss' for Hawke's Bay, he said.