Each year on April 14th, people across the nation participate in National Dolphin Day. Dolphins are cetacean mammals that are related to whales and porpoises. Ranging is size from 4 ft to up to 30 feet; dolphins are among almost forty species in 17 genera. Found worldwide, they prefer the shallower seas of the continental shelves. As carnivores, their diet consists of mostly fish and squid. Male dolphin – bull Female dolphin – cow Young dolphin – calf Group of dolphins – school or pod Dolphins are known to have acute eyesight both in and out of the water along with having a well-developed sense of touch, with free nerve endings densely packed in the skin. They can hear frequencies ten times or more above the upper limit of what adult humans can and are capable of making a broad range of sounds using nasal air sacs located just below the blowhole. Living in pods of up to a dozen dolphins, they are highly social animals. Pods do merge in areas where there is an abundance of food, forming superpods, which may exceed 1,000 dolphins. Dolphins can, and do, establish strong bonds within their pods and will stay with injured or ill individuals, even helping them to breathe by bringing them to the surface if needed. You will see the dolphins frequently leaping above the water’s surface. They do this for various reasons; when traveling, jumping saves them energy as there is less friction while in the air, this is known as porpoising. Some other explanations for leaping include orientation, social display, fighting, non-verbal communication, entertainment and attempting to dislodge parasites. I've never had a great urge to swim with dolphins, but I've been lucky enough to see them in the wild on many occasions.
I love dolphins, I blame Flipper . I’ve seen them from the ferry to Santander swimming and jumping by the side of the ferry. It was awesome. We also saw a Fin whale (2nd largest whale) that the ferry captain slowed the ferry for so we could all see it swim by . As it was in the days before we had smart phones I only have the image in my own head, it was ace. Ps spookily as I read this thread I was watching the Edible Garden on tv and a woman on it had a dolphin tattoo!!
Not sure I should be putting this on here as @Barneyrubble will no doubt use it to reinforce his new myth about me and "inflatables" but ..... when I was a nipper I basically wanted to be Flipper, or more generally a dolphin. Predictable "weather", no getting ready for school/pod in the morning, and lots of play time. When I learned that they're as intelligent as we are (if not more so) things just got a whole lot better. This developed eventually into wanting to build a bond-villain style apartment under the sea, and that became a house in the side of a hill once I'd read The Hobbit ... by which time I was 10, so of course making much more considered and sensible decisions! Finally I'd just like to say "Wakkakak k k k k"
Dolphins are fantastic creatures - swam with one when we were in the Caribbean a few years ago - but wasn't happy with the way it was kept - perhaps in hindsight we shouldn't have done t but it was a memorable experience . Its English name "dolphin" is from the french "dauphin" which means prince and it is certainly amongst the royalty of animals.
The Dolphin was a great pub in the 70’s, round our way, ran by a bloke called ‘Barry’. Back then, you could drink and drive! We always used to ask for KP peanuts, to see if the girl had any clothes on, on the display card.
