The Friendly Dolphin

blindboy's picture
blindboy started the topic in Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 9:19am

If you have been surfing the northern beaches over the last few weeks you might have seen this dolphin. It joins a group of surfers and swims around and plays with them for hours at a time. It is clearly a case of dolphin seeking people rather than the other way around. In the circumstances it has been hard to resist the temptation to touch it and encourage its behaviour. Conservationists say this is a bad idea and there are laws to back them up. Having seen just how friendly it is I find it hard to criticise those who have responded to its playfulness.....but to keep everyone informed here is the information sheet that has been published about it.

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/animals/DolphinFlyerDec13.pdf

zenagain's picture
zenagain's picture
zenagain Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 10:01am

Wow, what a treat for the people.

Despite that, I hope people heed this advice and she one day returns to her pod where she belongs.

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 10:17am

I had the amazing experience of surfing with this dolphin about a month ago at Manly.

It was a small day with super clear water and after catching a wave my friend said that she'd seen a shark and it had just swam under her.

I'm always sceptical about shark calls so I asked where it was and she's like I don't know. Then 20m away under this pack of surfers this shark like shadow was just stalking them and not surfacing for air at all.

It was under a full minute and they started to freak, yelling shark and paddling in. Although not big I also thought it was a shark so slowly started paddling in but looking back, intrigued at if it really was one (wasn't going to do too much damage).

After another 20s or so it finally popped up for air and everyone was relieved that it was a dolphin.

For the next hour it would come up right next to you, swim under you and just play with the surfers. Catch waves etc. Absolutely amazing.

Joel from Saltmotion and Murray from Sprout Daily have amazing images of it here:

http://www.saltmotion.com/2013/09/26/one-curious-dolphin.html

http://daily.sproutdaily.com/?p=7962

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 10:18am

Oh and it's apparently known as a Solitary Dolphin which has either been shunned from it's pod or for some other reason headed off on its own.

It looks like it's using humans for interaction that it is missing with its pod.

GREGLVOV's picture
GREGLVOV's picture
GREGLVOV Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 10:47am

Thanks for the heads-up Blindboy , great thing the friendly dolphin , hope she finds her pod and makes it a family 2104.....

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 10:56am

So, it seems we've got our own Fungie the Dolphin.

http://www.dingledolphin.com/

VICLongboard's picture
VICLongboard's picture
VICLongboard Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 10:45pm
Craig wrote:

I had the amazing experience of surfing with this dolphin about a month ago at Manly.

It was a small day with super clear water and after catching a wave my friend said that she'd seen a shark and it had just swam under her.

I'm always sceptical about shark calls so I asked where it was and she's like I don't know. Then 20m away under this pack of surfers this shark like shadow was just stalking them and not surfacing for air at all.

It was under a full minute and they started to freak, yelling shark and paddling in. Although not big I also thought it was a shark so slowly started paddling in but looking back, intrigued at if it really was one (wasn't going to do too much damage).

After another 20s or so it finally popped up for air and everyone was relieved that it was a dolphin.

For the next hour it would come up right next to you, swim under you and just play with the surfers. Catch waves etc. Absolutely amazing.

Joel from Saltmotion and Murray from Sprout Daily have amazing images of it here:

http://www.saltmotion.com/2013/09/26/one-curious-dolphin.html

http://daily.sproutdaily.com/?p=7962

had a dolfin out with me once... shat myself thought it was a shark... 2 weeks ago at rye a fur seal was out same thing saw it (big black thing) shat myself.

silicun's picture
silicun's picture
silicun Thursday, 9 Jan 2014 at 12:11pm

Its always such a pleasure to see a dolphin or a pod while your surfing and when they surf as well it is quite the spectacle. An interesting side note, I came across this article recently -

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/dolphins-deliberately-ge...

wellymon's picture
wellymon's picture
wellymon Thursday, 9 Jan 2014 at 3:23pm

Silicun, nice link, very interesting.

The law scrutinise us humans on getting high...........?