Overfriendly Dolphins

What an absolutely fascinating and surprising thread this is!

The dolphin in the video capsizing the topper was amazing. I can only guess this happened before social media 'took off' or I am sure that it would have gone viral. Although it looks like the dolphin in the video is playfully, deliberately, capsizing the little dinghy, it seems unlikely that they have such a clever grasp of physics and topper design.

It does seem more likely that they are using the rudder as a 'rubbing post' as others have suggested. Perhaps they also use the keel on a yacht, which would be hard to detect.

Fascinating, and a bit scary. I found COlinD's account of dolphins repeatedly ramming his boat on the port side rather alarming, as heir does not seem a benign explanation.

Sharks? Yes, OK. They are the bad guys. I remember seeing a photo in ?Knox-Johnson's? book where a shark had rammed a hole in his hull (briefly mentioned as I am sure that he did not put down his cup of tea while he repaired the gaping hole.)

But Dolphins have had a singularly good press for thousands of years! Montissier was convinced that a dolphin saved him from grounding and Perolus Jack is meant to have guided hundreds of ships to safety.

Is this YBW thread the warning to the world that the dolphins have had enough of us and have declared war? ! :confused:
Maybe the mice have told them that they are going to cancel the experiment.
 
Well I understand Dolphins see off sharks by ramming them at high speed with their boney nose, so presumably if anything worries them it gets the same treatment - I don't know what a boat could do wrong, presumably unwittingly getting between mother & infant would be a bad idea as with many species -

but yes it could be an ungrateful way of saying " So long and thanks for all the fish ".
 
Last edited:
rob2 said:
Dolphins are remarkably tactile creatures. They love to make contact with anything that takes their interest. Divers have told me that the males tend to investigate by rubbing their penis over the item of interest!

Just tell them - no means NO.

Rob.
Click to expand...
One of the River Officers in Dartmouth reported this happening to him (well, his boat!) this summer. Apparently, the dolphin took a shine to his RIB and was rather ...erm ...turgid.
 
KAL said:
One of the River Officers in Dartmouth reported this happening to him (well, his boat!) this summer. Apparently, the dolphin took a shine to his RIB and was rather ...erm ...turgid.
Click to expand...

dolphins do lead a rather interesting and high energy sex life

and the odd male hanging around harbours is often just that - an odd male or an outcast from the pod

tumescence while interacting with humans and boats is pretty common

in the wild - as opposed to tooling around in harbours

you will often see them in threes

usually two males and one female

the males form life long bonds to their male partners and they co-operate to separate a female out from the rest of the pod, take her away and have sex. Once she is fertilised she will go back to the pod of females and youngsters.

This summer Jill and I were joined by just such a group of three who stayed with us for about 20 minutes
while we were drifting along at two knots. I have tried to find out about the gentle tail slapping - to no avail I have to say. Normally tail slapping is regarded as being aggressive



any enlightenment chaps

D
 
Ravi said:
What an absolutely fascinating and surprising thread this is!

The dolphin in the video capsizing the topper was amazing. I can only guess this happened before social media 'took off' or I am sure that it would have gone viral. Although it looks like the dolphin in the video is playfully, deliberately, capsizing the little dinghy, it seems unlikely that they have such a clever grasp of physics and topper design.

It does seem more likely that they are using the rudder as a 'rubbing post' as others have suggested. Perhaps they also use the keel on a yacht, which would be hard to detect.

Fascinating, and a bit scary. I found COlinD's account of dolphins repeatedly ramming his boat on the port side rather alarming, as heir does not seem a benign explanation.

Sharks? Yes, OK. They are the bad guys. I remember seeing a photo in ?Knox-Johnson's? book where a shark had rammed a hole in his hull (briefly mentioned as I am sure that he did not put down his cup of tea while he repaired the gaping hole.)

But Dolphins have had a singularly good press for thousands of years! Montissier was convinced that a dolphin saved him from grounding and Perolus Jack is meant to have guided hundreds of ships to safety.

Is this YBW thread the warning to the world that the dolphins have had enough of us and have declared war? ! :confused:
Maybe the mice have told them that they are going to cancel the experiment.
Click to expand...

Dont be too sure about that, admittedly this video is about orcas, but dolphins are at least on a par in the brain stakes.


Dolphins have also been found to be junkies, messing with fish that excrete psychotropic substances as a defence.
 
When we spotted a school of about 6-7 Dolphins off Jersey they seemed to home in on our depthsonder, coming at us like torpedo's so I hurriedly yelled to shut the sounder off; they then formated on us, and seemed to like it the faster we went; it was a calm so we were motoring, flat out at 7 knots they seemed to love it.

All in echelon formation off the starboard bow ( that was in the sun, don't know if that's relevant ) and very obviously taking turns to ride inches away in the bow wave; a pair would peel off and another couple come in - it seemed clear they were getting something out of it, I'd like to think fun but maybe getting rid of parasites.
 
Can anyone else remember that diver who was arrested for playing with a dolophins privates. It must be about 20 years ago
The dolphin was hanging around a harbour for a few weeks and the bloke went in with it once two often.
 
Halo said:
Can anyone else remember that diver who was arrested for playing with a dolophins privates. It must be about 20 years ago
The dolphin was hanging around a harbour for a few weeks and the bloke went in with it once two often.
Click to expand...

If you mean Freddie the harbour dolphin off the Northumbrian coast, it wasn't a diver. The chap went out in his boat.
 
dylanwinter said:
I have tried to find out about the gentle tail slapping - to no avail I have to say. Normally tail slapping is regarded as being aggressive

any enlightenment chaps

D
Click to expand...

Apparently dolphins often use their tails as 'brakes' when swimming alongside Centaurs as they find it difficult to slow down to the speed that the boat is travelling at. :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

( I thought I should post that since you can't have a 3 page post on YBW without it degenerating into a slanging match with some gratuitous personal abuse.)
 
Last edited:
About three years ago on Christmas day I went diving from Brixham breakwater, I was in the water roughly waist deep, just checking my kit when "George" the resident dolphin appeared. swimming in between my partner and I. For around twenty or so minutes he kept swimming around us, at one point his "todger" was out trying to rub himself up against me, at this stage it was becoming more and more tactile so we decided it was best to exit the water and abort the dive! Dolphins are the only species apart from Man that has sex for pleasure.
And just to add, A lot of Sharks are not that dangerous, I have dived in Egypt many times and have encountered, grey reef, white tip, hammerheads, tiger, and a few other sharks and not one has attacked or come too close for comfort. Unfortunately the film Jaws did a lot to tarnish their name.
 
Russ the Diver said:
About three years ago on Christmas day I went diving from Brixham breakwater, I was in the water roughly waist deep, just checking my kit when "George" the resident dolphin appeared. swimming in between my partner and I. For around twenty or so minutes he kept swimming around us, at one point his "todger" was out trying to rub himself up against me, at this stage it was becoming more and more tactile so we decided it was best to exit the water and abort the dive! Dolphins are the only species apart from Man that has sex for pleasure.
And just to add, A lot of Sharks are not that dangerous, I have dived in Egypt many times and have encountered, grey reef, white tip, hammerheads, tiger, and a few other sharks and not one has attacked or come too close for comfort. Unfortunately the film Jaws did a lot to tarnish their name.
Click to expand...


It's not so much that not all sharks are dangerous or even that any shark isn't dangerous all the time, it's just that I'd rather not find out which shark it is or what mood it's in by going for a swim with it.
 
dylanwinter said:
the males form life long bonds to their male partners and they co-operate to separate a female out from the rest of the pod, take her away and have sex. Once she is fertilised she will go back to the pod of females and youngsters.
Click to expand...

This behaviour in humans is known as 'gang rape'. The female can be separated for sometime until the males have mated with her several times.

It sounds to me like the dolphins were warning you of the oncoming boat and telling you to steer away by knocking your rudder. Or I may have watched too many 'Flipper' episodes as a kid....
 
Someone told me that they had heard about a dolphin knocking on a boat when it had a fishing lure caught in its mouth. The boat owners removed it for the dolphin and it swam off.
Again, this could well be a 'Flipper story' but, being a hopeless romantic I will probably heave-to, if they ever come knocking on my rudder. Just, in case.
 
Last year while sailing towards the Plymouth breakwater we heard a banging from under the keel. Turned out to be a dolphin and we suspected it was trying to warn us about the impending crash; we were sailing towards the 10m contour then going to follow that round into the sound.
 
Did a Forum search as I had this experience just this week whereby a dolphin followed my boat for about 30 minutes frequently banging into the hull and rudder. It could have just been rubbing against the rudder but it felt quite violent and the tiller was moving in my hand a fair bit. It definitely felt like the dolphin was targeting the rudder as it would swim along the side of the boat surfacing and then dropping back to the stern before clouting the rudder. Each "attack" on the rudder lasting for a good 30 seconds or so and after a good half a dozen or so of these I did start getting a bit nervous. Whole thing was still quite amazing as I've never had a dolphin follow and interact with the boat for so long.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top