History Main / SapientCetaceans

''[[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1...So long, and thanks for all the tropes!]]''

''...So long, and thanks for all the tropes!''

* In ''Literature/StarterVillain'' the waters around the VolcanoLair are patrolled by genetically engineered dolphins, who are threatening a strike (again) after the protagonist inherits his supervillain uncle's "business." It's stated that dolphins were already pretty intelligent, but the engineered ones are so smart that they can't relate to their wild cousins, which is why they're striking, they are allowed to leave but have no place to go. One of the other villains also uses humpback whales as spies, and missile platforms, [[spoiler:they wind up joining the dolphins' union.]]

** In ''[[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Probe_%28novel%29 Probe]]'', a sort-of sequel novel to ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|The Voyage Home}}'', the Cetacean probe is traced back to its homeworld-- inhabited by a race of super-dolphins. They had telekinetic powers, what the internal dialog of the Probe calls 'The Voice'. It is stated that they had range and power enough to protect their planet from invasion by a civilization strongly implied to be the Borg. They were not, however, able to prevent these would-be invaders from rendering their star unable to sustain life on their world, so they built ships and, like the humanoids that had dwelt on the land, fled from the known universe. (These humanoids are also implied to have fled from the Borg, but while there are indications they fled a threat and deliberately left false clues to their destination(s) as part of a system of prepared traps,[[note]]Such as star systems where the star was on the verge of going supernova, had already collapsed into a black hole, or was in some other way violently unstable.[[/note]] there are no specific descriptions of what the threat was.) Ultimately the Enterprise crew and a Romulan musician (as super-dolphins, the Probe-builders' language is musical in nature) team up to copy the telekinetic "Voice" via tractor beams and communicate with the Probe.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Dolphins were one the earliest animal species to be uplifted, or "provolved", to sapience. They are quite common, living on oceanic worlds and aquatic habitats all over the terragen sphere. There are also several genetically recreated and provolved whales on Old Earth, known as "Gaian whales".

* WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}} has [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/dolfury.htm Dolfury]] and the vampire narwhal [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/narwight.htm Narwight]], which happens to be one of the smarter Vampires in the setting.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* In the ''Venus Trap'' by Creator/KurtMahr, of the Literature/{{PerryRhodan}} series; In an escape by sea, Son Okura establishes telepathic contact with seal-like creatures that guide him, Rhodan, and John Marshall eventually to safety of the shore.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': in a WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror episode dolphins invade the land and take over. They can speak English.
-->'''Snorky:''' ''[in high pitched voice]'' [[EloquentInMyNativeTongue Snorky ... talk ... man ...]] ''[clears throat and reverts to deep male voice]'' I'm sorry, let me start over. Eons ago, dolphins lived on the land. Then your ancestors drove us into the sea, where we suffered for millions of years. I, King Snorky, hereby banish all humans to the sea!

* In Creator/{{Piers Anthony}}'s ''Prostho Plus'' stories -- about a human dentist abducted by aliens to serve as their on-ship oral hygiene practitioner -- the intrepid prosthodontist is called upon to do some filings for a life-form on a wholly aquatic planet, who turns out to be the son of a whale-like species who are planetary rulers and who can therefore pay the fabulous costs of ''tons'' of gold used to restore the cavity-laden rotten teeth. After several days of work with JCB's to excavate the rot and a portable blast furnace to melt the gold for the fillings -- all done inside the creature's mouth as it really is that large -- the dentist asks what caused catastrophic rot in the first place. He learns that over-indulgent parents had allowed too many sweeties and not imposed a good enough teeth-cleaning regime...

* The 1967 novel ''A Sentient Animal'' by Robert Merle is about a scientist who successfully teaches human languages to dolphins, resulting (to his dismay) in the latter being used as living weapons by the US military.

* In Sergey Volnov's ''Army of the Sun'', someone thought it was a good idea to uplift not only whales but also sharks (despite the latter being a fish and not a mammal). Oh yeah, and they also have incredible PsychicPowers. Interestingly, the only intelligent shark in the novel is pretty peaceful and bears humans no ill will and is a mentor to a young intelligent orca. For reference, orca's kill sharks for sport.

* Betty Ballantine's ''The Secret Oceans'' features intelligent dolphin-like creatures which are dubbed Cetasapiens.

* Peter Macey's ''Stationary Orbit'': ET signals of presumed exo-planetary origin are revealed to be from a nearby (the research institution's) dolphin school park.

* In Arthur C. Clarke's ''Dolphin Island'', human researchers learn to understand dolphins' language and some of the dolphins learn to speak some English words. Eventually communication becomes good enough for the dolphins to explain what they wanted all along: [[spoiler:human protection from orcas. Orca are good at communicating within their species but less intelligent than dophins, so the researchers come up with a [[NeuralImplanting nightmarish]] way to train individual orca to fear attacking dolphins in the hope that the fear will spread through their entire population.]]

* In the 1981 book ''Megalodon'' by Robin Brown, the protagonist scientist has developed the Janus device, a computer/vocoder/translator which enables him to teach two dolphins (nicknamed Doris and Macho) and a killer whale (Morgan) a rudimentary language (their own language is sophisticated enough to communicate three-dimensional sonar images -- it's converting that into a language simple enough to be translated that's the problem).

** ''Literature/{{Existence}}'' features a "tribe" of dolphins who show unusual intelligence, catching fish using a net, having a language that they manage to teach to a humans, etc. [[spoiler:It's eventually discovered that they were uplifted.]]