Explanation:
Kara lives with her father Jim in a fishing village in Cornwall. Her mother, a marine
biologist, disappeared a year ago on a dolphin-saving expedition to the Solomon Islands
but Kara believes that she will return. This faith is strengthened by a rare sighting of a
white dolphin calf, which she sees as a sign that her mum is still out there.
Kara and Jim have been taken in by Kara’s aunt and uncle but money is tight so Jim is
forced to put the family boat, named Moana, up for sale. Kara is very unhappy about this,
as Moana is one of her last links to her missing mother.
Kara breaks the nose of the school bully, Jake, whose father, Dougie, owns the fishing
trawlers that employ her uncle. Kara’s mother had successfully campaigned for a ten-year
dredging ban to conserve the local coral reef, which is about to expire. Dougie blames
Kara’s mother for the loss of his elder son, who drowned whilst fishing beyond the ban
limit. Jake vows that his family will destroy Kara and her father, and soon afterwards Jim’s
lobster pots are sabotaged.
Kara meets a new boy at school, Felix, who has Cerebral Palsy. They do not hit it off and
when Felix’s father offers to buy Jim’s boat, Kara is determined to put him off sailing so
that she can keep Moana. Much to her surprise, Felix takes to sailing easily, finding that
his mobility difficulties are lessened at sea. Kara is relieved, however, when his father
decides not to buy Moana, opting instead for a more manageable dinghy that Felix can
sail singlehanded.
Kara finds the white dolphin calf trapped in a fishing net, beached and in distress. With
help from Felix, his father, and the marine rescue team, the calf is cared for in a tidal pool,
but becomes separated from the mother dolphin, meaning that it might have to be put
down as it cannot be returned to the wild alone. In a daring night dive, Kara finds the
mother dolphin and leads it to the tidal pool.
Meanwhile Kara is unable to find the password for her mother’s dolphin-shaped memory
stick, which she believes holds a crucial message.
Felix mobilizes support for a local fishermen’s boycott of dredging, using the plight of the
white dolphin to attract media attention. At a public debate, Dougie has almost swayed
the crowd against the conservationists when Felix, who has found the password for the
memory stick, delivers the campaigners’ master stroke: Kara’s mother’s final
documentary about the long-term ill effects of sea dredging.
Soon afterwards, the dolphin calf is returned to the sea with its mother and Felix shows
Kara a photograph of her mother before her last dive. It is now almost certain that she
died in a diving accident that was covered up.
Public opinion has turned against Dougie, but he persists in dredging the bay
regardless and sacks Kara’s uncle for refusing to join him. Kara discovers that
Dougie has bought Moana for Jake to sail in the local regatta, and that the white
dolphin’s mother has been drowned in one of Dougie’s nets.
The regatta is cancelled due to a predicted storm, but Jake and his friend Ethan
insist on taking Moana out to sea. Felix and Kara follow in the dinghy and save
Jake and Ethan when they run into trouble. Grateful not to lose his surviving son,
Dougie promises to stop dredging and to research dolphin-friendly fishing.
4
Themes for exploring White Dolph
