Let it be.
That’s the advice divers, swimmers, boaters and snorklers
are being given concerning the wild dolphin who has made his home in the North
Sound.
The male dolphin dubbed Stinky, Humpy and Randy has become
more and more sexually aggressive toward human beings in the water.
A video was recently made by divers at Hepps Wall off West
Bay showing how aggressive the dolphin has become. You can see it here.
The divers who made the video said they did so to warn other
divers and swimmers to get out of the water if they come across the dolphin and
to discourage others from seeking out the animal and interacting with them.
The video shows one of the divers being pinned to the seabed
floor by the dolphin.
Lone, aggressive male dolphins are not that uncommon in the
wild. One has been living in Lake Ponchartrain east of New Orleans since the
passing of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Residents along the lakeshore are
concerned about their safety as well as that of the dolphin’s. Like here,
people have been warned to stay away from the rogue dolphin and refrain from
feeding it.
As one resident said, the community doesn’t have a dolphin
problem; it has a people problem. And he’s right.
Moving that dolphin or our own is not an option as both
would probably return to the areas with which they have become so familiar.
Many of us learned to associate dolphins as intelligent
mammals that are friendly and helpful toward humans from the 1960s television
show Flipper. But even one of the trainers on that show turned to animal
activism after one of the dolphins used in the show killed herself by refusing
to breath. She was, he said, depressed.
Dolphins are magnificent creatures to observe in the wild,
but humans have to remember that they are wild animals and those like Stinky
and the one in Louisiana have become adjusted to people. If you come across the
dolphin, get out of the water as quickly as you can. Marvel at his beauty, but
don’t bother him.
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