A woman who worked for a NASA-funded project to teach dolphins English admitted to having sex with the dolphin in a new documentary. The BBC documentary, entitled “The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins,” is based on interviews with Margaret Howe Lovatt, who was stationed in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1963 as part of an experiment with the aquatic mammals.
Lovatt lived isolated in a house that had been flooded with a dolphin named Peter for 10 weeks in an effort to teach him English. Peter was reaching sexually maturity and began to take a shine to Lovatt, reports The Mirror UK.
Lovatt said, “Peter liked to be… with me. He would rub himself on my knee, my foot or my hand and I allowed that. I wasn’t uncomfortable – as long as it wasn’t too rough … It was just easier to incorporate that and let it happen, it was very precious and very gentle, Peter was right there, he knew that I was right there.”
She found his advances getting more and more disruptive, reports Sunday World. She wrote in her diary, “I find that his desires are hindering our relationship, he jams himself again and again against my legs, circles around me, is inclined to nibble and is generally so excited that he cannot control his attitude toward me.”
Eventually the two had, what she calls, a “very close encounter,” before Peter was sent away to Miami. Experts say that Peter committed suicide there by sinking to the bottom of the tank and refusing to breathe.
The documentary will air on BBC4 on June 17 at 9 p.m.