In the 1960s, she took part in a NASA-funded research project in which she attempted to teach a dolphin named Peter to understand and mimic human speech.
[1] He was building a research laboratory with funding from NASA and the United States Navy with the goal of speaking to extraterrestrial life forms.
In order to simulate this situation he built a "Dolphinarium", a dolphin-house flooded with water, on Saint Thomas.
Lovatt reasoned that if she lived with the dolphins and made human-like sounds, similar to how a mother teaches her child to speak, they would have more success.
"[3] An article titled "Interspecies Sex: Humans and Dolphins" appeared in the magazine Hustler that dramatized the situation and reflected badly on their research.
Since neither his communication experiments nor his LSD research were proving fruitful, Lilly's Dolphinarium eventually lost all funding.
[1] In smaller tanks, and since the building lacked sunlight and space, Peter quickly deteriorated and eventually "committed suicide", in John C. Lilly's words.
Margaret Howe Lovatt was portrayed by Shiri Appleby in the "Drugs" episode of the TV series Drunk History, with an inebriated Duncan Trussell telling the story.