A certain Mr Richard Nichols belled me this evening saying there were "Lots of Dolphins in the harbour" What actually in the harbour?" I asked Yep was R's reply It gave me a bit of a nasty feeling. The last time we had lots of dolphins in the harbour they were Commons and in danger of getting stranded as the tide ebbed and the harbour largely dried out.
We got there and it was soon evident that Richard was right still lots of Dolphins in the harbour and yes also they looked like commons which was potentially a problem, Our Bottles know their way around but the Commons have no real comprehension of shallow enclosed waters. I head a loud engine approaching the harbour and my heart sank it was a Jet-Ski! If it kept coming at high speed there was a danger it would spook the commons further into the harbour maybe resulting in a stranding. Helpless I watched as the Jet ski ploughed straight through them at at least thirty knots oblivious to the dolphins
Happily by complete fluke it had the opposite affect spooking them back out of the harbour at speed!
We counted around thirty as they left the harbour some juveniles and calves obvious in the pod So a happy ending and tanks to Richard for alerting us and thanks to the Jet-ski who probably never saw a single dolphin but inadvertently scared them out the right way,although it might have just as possibly resulted in a panic stranding.
Thankfully a happy ending and yet another amazing chapter in the story of the Dolphin Coast!
