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Posts: 17
Registered:
January 2003
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Dolphin in Harraseeket River
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Wed, 29 September 2004 21:51
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Last Sunday, as I was motoring back to the shore in my inflatable dinghy, I was startled to hear a splash behind me. When I turned around, I didn't see anything unusual. Then I hear a sound like air escaping from a punctured tire. This time when I looked, I saw alongside a gray, ~6+ foot long, torpedo-like shape. The shape dived down and disappeared, only to reappear astern a minute later. It was following very close, so close that its head was under the dinghy bottom. I was affraid that it will get hurt by the propeller, so I stopped the motor. The creature made it clear in no uncertain terms that it wanted the outboard started again, first by circling around the dinghy, and then by actually tilting the propeller out of the water with its forehead! It did not mind it at all when I touched its head (its skin felt like soft rubber.) When, after a while, it became clear that I was not restarting the motor, it went away to play next to a nearby moored sailboat. However, as soon as I got under way again, it was back following me. Again I stopped, and, again, it tried a few times to tilt the outboard up. It also would turn on its back as it swam under the stern (perhaps to get me to scratch its tummy?) Then it got bored with that game, and started to spin my dinghy in circles by pushing on one of the tubes with its nose. I was finally rescued when it heard another dinghy motor, and it went off in pursuit of this more interesting playmate. The creature looked to me like a bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus (http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/btlnose.htm), probably a juvenile male. This encounter was almost surreal. I did not have a camera with me, but to make sure it was not a dream, I called my wife on the cell phone and gave her a running account as the events unfolded. It was an unforgettable experience. I only hope that this creature did not come to any harm and that it found its way out of the harbor.
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