So I heard that there were dolphin crew members on the Enterprise D.

I don't see why not.

 

They may have different salinity requirements

 

I posted an Intelligent Aquatic Aliens Collage (Study 1) in the Fan Art Forum.

 

Think it's time to reactivate this thread, now that

Spoiler

Cetacean Ops finally made an appearance in the Lower Decks Season 2 Finale

 

Spoiler

They were beluga whales rather than classic bottlenose dolphins, though

Since when are the Benzites or that reptilian-looking alien from Counterpoint aquatic?

 

Look at the collage closely and you’ll see art not even from Trek. The piece was a celebration of anything remotely aquatic in Trek and places it might go in the future.

The Moneans from VOY (likely named for the Ancient Greek islander Minoans) we’re vaguely amphibious, not reptilian, and build an underwater civilization on a unique planet made almost entirely of water — not underneath its oceans; it was all ocean.

The Benzites (who perhaps breathed air laced with cancerous-to-humans benzine in-universe) were undoubtedly influenced in their design by real world aquatic life on Earth, down to their coloring. I think I mentioned this upthread here or in the thread the collage was posted, and that I think they are amphibious as well, and perhaps also breath benzine-laced water in their natural habitat. They seem to wear “wet-suits” under their other clothing to assist in standard humanoid environments.

 

By the way, i wonder how much life has changed for the cetaceans on Earth in the 24th century.

Do you think there are cities or technological installations maintained by them? How much political influence do they have in United Earth and the Federation?

And how do they participate on courses in Starfleet Academy for example?

 

Maybe massive holographic interface tech. It’s harder for them to move in water than us through air (especially with our many fingered hands), so perhaps they’re super into other easy interfaces that register their subtlest fin movements or sounds (clicks, songs, etc) to switch them from webpage to webpage or even holographic building to holographic building.

Maybe even underwater “swim-ways,” or artificial current tunnels that work like highways or elevators to assist in travel like we have on the surface.

 

I was talking about the repitlian guy from Counterpount not the Moneans.
Also the Minoans were a pre-Hellenic civilization living on Crete

And well, it's never said that the Benzites live underwater. I imagine there'd be more problems with them being on non-aquatic ships than just the breathing apparatus supplying some gas. Also I'd imagine they'd be more obvious adapted to aquatic/ semi-aquatic life, other than them being blue.
But if that's your fanon, then I respect it, and I can agree that they look like they were inspired by catfish

 

Torat? He’s very clearly amphibious to me — a humanoid frog-man, from his pupils to his hands to his skin to his air sacs, etc.

It’s the distant future — anything’s possible. Trek is pretty uneven in its portrayal of different technologies.

Again, they were included for their real world design inspiration, and the rest isn’t a far leap.

Now let’s see your collage.

 

Ah yes, the typical "well you aren't a musician"/"where is your movie" fallacy.

Not sure why you are so defensive when I already said I respect your head-canon.

 

Ah yes, the “well I was only saying, I don’t see why anyone should be annoyed with lil’ ol’ me” defense.

And I really want to see what you come up with.

 

I really liked the idea and realization of the Xindi aquatics. They were neat.

 

They were their own proto-federation

 

The Andorians were barred from appearing on TNG because antenna were "too silly," but dolphin crewmembers was totally kosher.

 

Hey in the Mirror Universe the Xindi were good guys

 

They're horny af in Lower Decks, so they fit entirely into Gene's vision.