[Sabertooth]

I wonder if they can be "steered" to particular locations through some form of underwater communication?

Oh, I don't think there's any doubt that they can be steered, they do that at marine parks.

About 20 years ago I worked at Sea World in San Diego, and had a chance to play around with a lot of the cetaceans. I wasn't a trainer, but I've had direct experience with bottlenose, Pacific whiteside, pilot whales, beluga, and killer whales. They're very doglke, but there is more happening upstairs than there is with canines. Cetaceans have an advanced play instinct, a much greater capacity for calculated mischief, and also for the spontaneous creation of games with basic rules. I'm not at all surprised that there is an element of unpredictability with the Navy's dolphins.

[jimtorr]

""Cetaceans have an advanced play instinct, a much greater capacity for calculated mischief, and also for the spontaneous creation of games with basic rules.""

I had an opportunity to go visit 'Keiko' the killer whale while he was in the aquarium on the Oregon coast. As he swam about the quite large tank he was obviously as much interested in the people as the people were interested in him.

The trainers said that he demanded (how, they didn't say) that someone keep him company at all times. To keep him entertained they would turn on a television and place it in a window in his tank so that he could watch.

The trainers said that he was bored by comedy and love scenes, but that he liked action-adventure shows and movies. They would test him, somehow (again, they didn't say how), and found that he had a limited understanding of what was happening in some scenes that he watched.

It could be that some cetaceans are quite intelligent, but that they just aren't interested in the same things as we are, so we don't see it. Even the dolphins may be to playful to demonstrate their intelligence.

Remember the series of stories by David Brin?