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The dance title refers to a Risso’s dolphin, named after Pelorus Sound in Marlborough, New Zealand. From 1888 until 1912, the dolphin would pilot ships through French Pass, a particularly dangerous stretch of the Cook Strait. Although protected by an Act of Parliament of 1904, the dolphin disappeared after four Norwegian whaling ships passed through the Strait.  Wikipedia, however, offers: ‘research suggests that Pelorus Jack was an old animal; his head was white and his body pale, both indications of age, so it is likely that he died of natural causes’.

There is <<https://youtu.be/AgFQul3rlLk|archive footage>> of Pelorus Jack himself and also of <<https://youtu.be/qIg2H6gew7Y|Barry Skelton recounting the story>>.

Note that Risso's dolphins are not the iconic animals everyone (or at any rate everyone who watched kids' TV in the 1970s) knows from “Flipper”. They are bigger and have no “beak”.
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