1) if you look closely, you can see the kids were making faces at it - opening their mouths specifically. now, i do this on a lot of videos: to understand how a whale or dolphin may react to that kind of gesture in humans, you need to understand how they might react to another whale or dolphin making the gesture, because the whale or dolphin will cetaceanomorphize your behaviour - that is, it will assign your behaviour cetacean traits, just as so many of you are assigning "play" behaviour to a clear act of aggression. the kids might not have been meaning to be aggressive, but if that behaviour is thought of as aggressive in the cetacean universe then it will interpret it as aggressive and respond accordingly. as the more intelligent species, this is something humans need to get a proper grasp on to better facilitate inter-species communication with those species that may have the ability to communicate back.
2) cetaceans are sketchy. if you're mean to an elephant or a gorilla, it might very well kill you in response but it won't ever prey on you. with cetaceans, it's less clear because they're predatory species. we might not be their normal or usual diet, but predators are generally opportunistic and it's consequently somewhat foolish to suggest you're not on the menu. it's going to depend on a wide variety of factors.
i think most of us get this with dogs and cats. most people know not to stare in a dog's eye, because it might interpret it as a sign of extreme aggression. i think most of us know not to turn our backs to our cats, because they'll think you're rejecting them. with dolphins, you don't open your mouth like that....
if you look at the path of cetacean evolution, they seem to be evolving into - and competing with - sharks.
i'm just not convinced they're the best choice to get somewhere with a viable inter-species relationship. my money's on elephants...
