Wet Goddess 2.0: Woman Had ‘One-Sided’ Sexual Relationship With Dolphin In 60s

Anyone remember “Wet Goddess,” the memoir about a man who had a sexual relationship with a dolphin? Well, apparently Malcom Brenner wasn’t the only personal having sexual relations with a “wet goddess.”

Brenner was engaging in underwater love in the '70s, but in a new BBC documentary called “The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins,” Margaret Howe explained what happened when she tried to teach a bottlenose dolphin named Peter how to speak English in 1965 on the U.S. Virgin Islands. Howe, then 23, would eat, bathe and sleep together -- just the two of them.

He learned a few words, but Peter apparently fell in love with her. The two began so playful that Howe realized the sea mammal was becoming sexually aroused by her.

“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,” she wrote in her journal, according to the Daily Mail.

The study wasn’t meant to see if animals could fall in love with humans, but that’s apparently what happened with Peter and Howe. The dolphin would become so aroused around the trainer that she would be forced to send him into a pen with two female dolphins so he could essentially take a cold shower.

But Howe soon realized the best way to satisfy Peter so he would cooperate with their study would be to “scratch his itch” and move on. “Peter is courting me or something very similar. He presents his tummy and genital area for stroking. Perhaps this is his way of involving me in some form of sex play without scaring me away," she wrote.

Howe later said, "That relationship of having to be together sort of turned into really enjoying being together, and wanting to be together, and missing him when he wasn’t there. I did have a very close encounter with -- I can’t even say a dolphin again -- Peter."

The two didn’t have sexual intercourse and though Howe admitted their relationship was sexual on Peter’s part, she said it was sensual for her.

It might seem to many the relationship between Peter and Howe was unethical, but the ultimate tragedy was when Peter apparently committed suicide after he was moved from Howe to a lab in Miami, Florida. When funding for their project was pulled Peter was moved to another lab where he didn’t have any contact with his treasured trainer. He refused to breath and sank to the bottom of his tank.

It could have been because Peter was unhappy with his new surroundings, or the problem could have been he was suffering a broken heart after being pulled away from Howe. No one has ever tried to teach dolphins English again. “The Girl Who Talked To Dolphins” will premiere on BBC4 June 17 at 9 p.m.

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella