[dolphins] see them in context

What is it about dolphins?

Why do we tend to go all fuzzy over them, in contrast to our feelings over, say, the Great White:

An Irish article, by Graham Timmins, on Dusty the Dolphin showed me the real nature of the creature. Intended as a rebuttal of the MSM and local government paranoia over them, it nevertheless made me stop and think a bit more closely about that loveable dolphin swimming between my legs at Monkey Mia two decades back.

The article stated:

The Clare dolphin, Dusty, in particular, has been slandered right from the start and associated with ‘danger’ in almost every news report in which she has featured.

The writer sets us straight:

Only one dolphin anywhere in the world, ever, has been known to attack and kill a human being, and that was after long and repeated provocation. True, on many occasions solo bottlenose dolphins have banged into and injured people who have gone out to swim with them.

Even Fungie, who everybody thinks has a grade AA safety rating, has given a few bruises and even broken bones in his time. Dolphins are big and strong and if you encourage them to play rough with you it is at your own risk. You are in their territory and you are meeting them on their terms – which is precisely what is so good about it!

The implication that dolphins are by nature aggressive and are likely to set out to injure you, which appears again and again in press reports, is however one without any foundation and which we reject.

Dusty has been known to poke and prod people with her beak and on a few occasions people have been hit by her tail fluke, although this may not always have been deliberate. She has also closed her mouth on people’s fins, arms and legs, and on a few occasions has even used her beak to hold people underwater.

Anyone who has seen film of the Moray Firth dolphins beating up harbour porpoises will also be aware that we humans, by comparison with porpoises, are as agile in the sea and as well able to defend ourselves as a slug on a carpet. If a dolphin were to really attack you and mean it, you would simply not survive, and there is basically nothing you can do about it.

We’ve certainly seen her do this with people who have been very pushy, grabbing her fins for example, or intruding when she has been enjoying a quiet interaction with a favoured playmate, but also with apparently ‘innocent’ swimmers including children.

One scenario we have arrived at only with hindsight and after several similar occurences is that Dusty can be jealous of certain favoured swimmers and can object if they are replaced by others she doesn’t know, who she then chases out of the water. Every time we’ve seen this it has been girlfriends of male swimmers she has picked on – this may be coincidence but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that in human terms, Dusty can be a jealous mistress!

More recently, regular Dusty swimmers have concluded that many aggressive moves by the dolphin can be linked to a battle for possession of what she sees as ‘toys’, although to us they might be useful diving masks or expensive cameras. Right from the first years she has been in the habit of carrying off such objects, including also boogie boards and fins, whenever she gets the chance. Often she will bring them back, but by no means always. Face masks have become a favourite recently and if she grabs your mask with her teeth or bangs on it, it means she wants you to take it off and give it to her!

In any case we advise that if Dusty wants something, and you’re in water out of your depth, you give it to her, unless you are prepared to argue with 250kg of solid muscle. Regulars have found that if Dusty holds them underwater, they only have to let go of whatever they are carrying and she will release them.

Dolphins appear to lose their first calves quite commonly, but her calf’s chances in this case will not have been improved by the absence of other female dolphins to act as ‘midwives’, and it may also have been that Dusty was too young anyway to be a mother. However, other dolphins are frequently sighted in the area and there are many reports of Dusty interacting with some of them; at the same time there have been several incidents when she has conspicuously avoided visiting dolphins and one in which she appeared to be kidnapped by a gang of larger males.

Having read the article now, I’m even more enamoured of the dolphin than before.

Hell, even a baby can hurt you. Anyone who’s ever had his infant beside him in bed and suddenly the tyke turns over and his arm whacks you across the moosh knows what I’m saying.

Even a woman can physically hurt you sometimes if you’re not ready. I had enough kicks and bruises, clawed out bits of cheek and bitten neck to know the danger of a woman if you don’t keep an eye on her during your little tiffs.

So a 250 kg dolphin, even a female, is going to do it her way and if you’re playing on her terms, then her behaviour goes with the territory.

So what? She’s still adorable.