Self-described as half-teacher, half-naturalist, Dr. Kenneth S. Norris is one of the world’s foremost authorities on whales and dolphins, those most appealing creatures with whom we share the planet. Focusing on the spinner dolphins off Hawaii, Norris carries us through his earliest contacts with these graceful animals (including work with Gregory Bateson), his attempts with teams of students to learn about their complex lives in the sea, and finally to the tragic dolphin kill in the yellowfin tuna industry.

Dr. Norris tells us how the dolphins swim, find food, breathe in rough weather, and how they protect themselves in an underwater world totally without places to hide. Norris shows us how his scientific ideas evolve, takes us on a hair-raising trip aboard a tuna vessel where he and his colleagues dive in the net to search for solutions to the kill, and finally suggests how the “magic envelope,” the dolphins’ group protection system, might be the key to releasing them unharmed.