Underwater Chat Line
Once the calf is born, scientists plan to turn off the stereo and give Castaway the opportunity to communicate with her calf on her own.
If Castaway's verbal repertoire does not improve, staff will try opening up a live chat line between the dolphins at MMC and those at Dolphins Plus. Even then, success is not guaranteed.
"At the very least, [these efforts] might help the calf assimilate into its pod when it's moved to a new facility," Borger-Richardson said. "If it's not going to hurt them, we might as well give it a try."
Castaway has a mid-May due date. MMC scientists will monitor the bottlenose and her newborn calf for at least nine months before transporting the pair to another facility.
Given Castaway's deafness and her calf's potential developmental delays, neither dolphin will be released into the wild.
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