Dana Wharf Whale Watching has been making headlines recently because of a video the landing uploaded on Feb. 23, titled "Dana Point Dolphin Stampede." It shows perhaps 2,000 common dolphins swimming and porpoising with high energy alongside the Dana Pride as it plowed through the water off the Orange County coast (see video below.)
But some of the comments attached to the YouTube video or website reports -- and, in at least one case, the report itself -- have unfairly implied that the Dana Pride captain was frightening or endangering the mammals.
Apparently, many people are not familiar with a phenomenon that is spectacular, but not uncommon. Common dolphins are famous for chasing after boats -- often from great distances -- to swim in their wakes and leap alongside them.
I've witnessed this behavior dozens of times. In fact, dolphin encounters of this nature are a staple of the Southern California whale-watching industry, although pods are often much smaller.
So I was surprised to see this passage in a Discovery News blog report posted Tuesday: "Contrary to the idea that the dolphins are having a grand ol' time, it's more likely that the noise, vibration and water turbulence caused by the boat may have frightened the dolphins, which all reacted at once."
The next sentence reads, "As one YouTube commenter asks: 'Do you really have to drive your boat through the middle of them?' "
The reality is, when large pods of common dolphins are close to a moving boat, it's virtually impossible to avoid these types of encounters. The mammals do seem to enjoy the interaction, and they're amazingly adept at avoiding moving vessels.
Southern California researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who has spent years studying local marine mammals, said she has never witnessed common dolphins exhibiting what resembles a negative reaction to a boat.
"They either ignore the boat, usually if they're feeding, or they race over to the boat," the researcher said.
Donna Kalez, who manages Dana Wharf Whale Watching, said misleading comments have appeared elsewhere, too, such as beneath a video report posted recently on the Weather Channel website.
One of them reads, "I want to know why the boat didn't stop instead of plowing through those dolphins? I wonder how many of them got hit."
The answer, almost assuredly, is zero.
-- Pete Thomas
I've seen this phenomenon at sea while in the Navy. In every case it is the dolphins that came to the ship- not the ship chasing the dolphins. I've seen large pods swim circles around a fast moving nuclear aircraft carrier. The dolphins are too fast and manuverable a swimmer to allow a slow moving boat, like this tour boat, plow into them. Ignorance is a dangerous thing...common sense is a rare commodity these days.
Posted by: Fencible | Jun 12, 2012 at 11:52 AM
what idots some people can be. the boat played NO part in the stampede. it is just what they do some times. and we are not reverting to apes, we are one of the 5 great apes. although i'm not to sure we are that great any more. people should watch a few more nature shows, & a lot less reality shows.
Posted by: karen | Mar 05, 2012 at 12:50 PM
I believe the television (news medias) has brainwashed people into thinking negatively and/or just not thinking. What a spectacular thing it is to be among these amazing creatures that love frolicking alongside the boat(s). Obviously, the people making the comments have not experienced that. Sad for them.
Posted by: judy willis | Mar 04, 2012 at 06:29 PM
I love how stupid people are these days. It's like humanity is reverting to being apes again. None of the dolphins got hurt. You think they're stupid enough to get crushed by a boat? If they were you'd hear about it a whole lot more. Dolphins are extremely smart and quick. That's why they swim by boats all of the time without getting hit and saved humans who've been attacked by sharks. Do some research and learn things instead of sitting on youtube rotting your brains away.
Posted by: Rob | Mar 01, 2012 at 02:34 PM
I worked on a oil platform in 1978 and was lucky enough to see a dolphin stampede from 300 feet above the water. They came out of nowhere and circled the platform and just headed out back to sea. There were no ships around.
Posted by: Richard McDonald | Mar 01, 2012 at 07:24 AM
somebody should have yelled at them...stop the f*kn ship! stop the slaughter ! bunch of pea heads --gonna love it when karma gets them!
Posted by: YvonneReyes | Mar 01, 2012 at 02:08 AM
this is a sign that another disaster will strike.
Posted by: ching | Mar 01, 2012 at 12:41 AM
Science suggests that ship noise stresses marine mammals: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/09/whales-ship-noise-stress_n_1266590.html. As a mom, I know that having the dishwasher going and two kids playing noisily while trying to have a conversation with my husband makes me crazy.
Human understanding of unusual marine mammal behavior (strandings, for example) is in its infancy. I'm not convinced that 2,000 dolphins are stampeding here for fun, but suppose it's a possibility.
Posted by: C K | Feb 29, 2012 at 10:17 AM
DANAPOINTWHALEWATCH, should be fined and the license removed, bastards you can see clearly they hit the dolphins because the way the boat cruises it crossing the dolphins swimming
Posted by: massimo | Feb 29, 2012 at 09:42 AM
There are people that don't like aquariums, but you will even find people that hate the idea there are boats out on the ocean like this no matter how legal it is.
Posted by: Kevin | Feb 29, 2012 at 08:53 AM
I agree that the boat is not to blame for startling the animals, usually dolphins dive to avoid boats, however, at one point the boat did seem to be going through the middle of the group. rather than parallel to the group, which I believe is in breach of most code of conducts.
Posted by: Ka | Feb 29, 2012 at 12:27 AM
Great points Pete. Amazing how many people make these comments with no knowledge of the animals natural behavior.
Posted by: Scott Sansenbach | Feb 28, 2012 at 11:11 PM