Contributed by Nalin:
I was working in oilfield 20 Miles offshore of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. A triad of one FPSO (Ship with production and storage of oil) and two Oil platforms made up for production of 35,000 BBls of Oil every day. I was stationed at the ship as Head of Marine and Safety department. On the afternoon of 16th November’07, we had a SOS call from our Oil Platform, 1 Mile East of us, that one Dolphin has got tied herself up in a fishing line and even after struggling for more than 2 hours has the line all around her nose.
Taking two guys, I lowered the rescue boat and we went on the mission 'Save Dolphin'. Since rescue boat is very low in height our view and horizon was very limited, however as we approached East Tower we were helped by the people on the platform, who were at a vantage position due to height. Every one was showing us the Dolphin's location and hurling us strategies to rescue her. Despite loosing our boat hook, bringing in a new gripper (with weight and a long line) and all the sincere advice from East tower operators, Dolphin eluded us. We still could not catch her because every time we used to go close to her she used to dive deep into the water clear of the rope and hook we were trying to pull her with.
So it was time to take the tough decision; to call the experts i.e. Fisher man. Now this was a catch 22 situation. We always shooo away the fisherman whenever they approach within the 500m zone of our territory however now we were inviting them only 20 metres from the East Platform.
We could spot a fishing boat 1Mile away from East tower. Swallowing my pride and ethics, I decided to call them for this (Dolphinitariun) gesture and we caught up with them. Thanks to expertise in French language, of Sr. Cargo operator Ouattara and GPO Silla we convinced them to help us 'release the dolphin' and brought them to the site of rescue.
It took fisherman about half an hour before they were able to fish out the 6 feet long dolphin from the water. Poor creature's nose was badly cut with the fishing line; several other fine cuts could be seen on her body. I am not a mind reader but for sure Dolphin must have thought "Here I go, let me say my last prayer to lord Neptune". Between claps and cheers all around on east Tower and our rescue boat we released the Dolphin who slipped away from the fisherman, dived and swam away.
Pity we didn't see her flip.
Lessons learned:
1. Our line was made of polypropylene, which floats in the water, hence didn't allowed the sinker to go down deep enough to catch the fishing line around dolphins nose.
2. There are no permanent allies or adversaries; there are only permanent interests! So embrace the adversary if the situation warrants and it is to our advantage.
Lesson to learn:
1. We went there to help the Dolphin, but she was suspicious of our intentions hence we could not help her as much as we wanted to. Similarly in our daily life how many times someone tries to reach out to us however due to either preconceived notions or cultural differences we are not sure of others intention and we can not make that connection. Is there any approach we can take to avoid this dilemma?
3 comments:
great job. Nice narration too.
Lessons learned and lesson to learn are amazing... :)
NoeL
Lessons to learn:
I think there's a way. Try to think from the other person's perspective. This has always helped me. Try to think what does the other person want? If you can't get to that, you'd never get to the solution.Find that, and the rest will follow.
Some years ago, I went to a corporate client to give us sponsorship for a big event we were staging in the college(Delhi College of Engg.)But, no matter how much we tried to convince him, he just wouldnt say yes.He didnt say "no" either.
Then, we thought hard about what he actually wanted us to do. Then, it struck me that during all the conversations, he only talked about "why was that event being done". And, frankly, we never had an answer that satisfied him. We came up answers like student interests, interation within student communities, technology improvisations and what not..But, ofcourse, he wasnt satisfied. Then, the answer just came to my mind. The contest was a techincal paper presentation and so, obviously new ideas were the core thing. But, that was not all. We also wanted a connect with the industry and to see them take it up, even if as a small project. Thats it. "Idea and its implementation".
Needless to say, we got the sposnsorship and 2 ideas got taken up by the company.
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