I always thought this was a myth about Dolphins

[ReefGuy]

It definately is cool, I just had always dismissed it as myth.

 

[H2Andy]

the story:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&e=1&u=/nm/life_newzealand_dolphins_dc

apparently, the dolphins "herded" some swimmers together
and kept them in a group while they fended off a Great
White...

not sure how much of this is the press being the press,
but it sounds fairly accurate

 

[diversteve]

thanks, snow... for good measure, i just merged all the threads into this one

I have a surfer friend from SoCal who told me there's been more than once when he's been a little farther out that dolphins will come up around him. He said if he tries to slip off his board and swim with them that one of them will usually come up underneath him and push him up back onto it. As long as he stays on the board they're happy to play around him. Almost makes me want to take up surfing.

 

[H2Andy]

I have a surfer friend from SoCal who told me there's been more than once when he's been a little farther out that dolphins will come up around him. He said if he tries to slip off his board and swim with them that one of them will usually come up underneath him and push him up back onto it. As long as he stays on the board they're happy to play around him. Almost makes me want to take up surfing.

that is too cool... i have been kayaking on the intracostal
a few times when a dolphin or two will come up to me
(never a full pod). they are curious and swim around,
come very close.

i've even made "eye contact" with a dolphin, and let me
tell you, those eyes have a large brain behind them! you
can just see them observing you.

i also saw a pilot whale and her calf once (near Matanzas
Inlet, for the locals), but they didn't come very close.

 

[DennisS]

We were having a cook out on Dauphin Island, AL and a friend of ours went in swimming. He was out about 50 yards swimming parallel to shore when we saw three dolphin following him. We knew when he saw the fins he'd freak. We were there for 3 or 4 minutes. Hasn't seen them, nope, hasn't seen them, nope he still hasn't seen them, this is cool-------suddenly he veers and swims in, practically raising a rooster tail---he sees them! They followed him to about 50 foot from the beach. He sounded like Porky Pig when he got out of the water. Too bad he didn't know they were dolphin at the time.

 

[SueMermaid]

I had a great dolphin encounter right here in NJ. I was laying on the beach with my sisters in Seaside Park a few years ago, and saw a gigantic pod of dolphins way out past the surf. I saw that they were common dolphins, and a few bottlenoses mixed in, I think. I grabbed my fins and swam out to meet them. The lifeguards were not amused and sent a guy out on a jetski to bring me back in, but I told them to get over it, and if I drowned, I promised not to sue them.
The dolphins were wary of me, but loved the lifeguard on the jet ski. They did give in to curiosity and sniffed around me a bit, but did not get close enough to touch me. They kept surfacing and eying me. There were probably at least 50 of them. Their echolocating squeals were something I could not exactly hear, but rather, I felt them. It was sort of like electricity. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.

 

[flounderer]

I was diving on the Gill off Wilmington, NC and had an awsome dolphin/shark encounter. I was doing a hang at 15 ft when I saw 2 bottlenose dolphin that decided to entertain me for 10 minutes or so. During that time the dolphins started swimming into the blue, at which point I saw a 7-8ft sandbar shark coming up from the depths. The dolphins returned and swam numerous circles around the shark forcing it back down to the bottom, seemed like it was straight out of National Geographics. You could tell the dolphins really didn't like the shark around. After it was chased away they hung out for 5 more minutes allowing me to shoot a few pics. All this happened about 20-30 feet away from me which made for the most incredible hang in my life. Luckily I managed to snap a fuzzy picture of the interaction, the shark is on the lower left and one of the dolphins is on the upper right, a little hard to make out but trust me.

 

[opiniongirl]

Maybe the dolphins were starting a new business enterprise - "Human petting areas, swim with the humans.." but it flopped after the humans kept on getting eaten.

 

[ThatsMe]

I saw a dolphin steal a beach ball from my cusin (sp?) off of Edisto Island, SC like 10 years ago. Never got it back.

 

[RonFrank]

We belive that we are about the only intelligent thing on the planet capable of compassion, but obviously stories like this make a strong case against that.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/003200411231230.htm

Ron

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/11/22/nz.dolphins.reut/index.html

Apparently a group of swimmers in New Zealand were rescued from a great white shark by a pod of dolphins, which swam around them defensively. I've always thought that type of behavior was a myth.