Florida bottlenose dolphins stir up mud “nets’ to corral fish (from BBC’s “Life”)

In the short time I’ve been volunteering for the Cape lookout Studies Program, I’ve learned a lot about how our local dolphins behave in ways that are not consistent throughout the world. While researchers are still learning the “whys” for these differences – it’s seems clear to me that cetaceans around the world have developed some interesting behavioral differences in different parts of the world. For example, some bottlenose dolphins chase fish up on shore, and others stir up mud to corral fish and then feed as their prey try to jump out of the nets.

Sri Lanka’s Unorthodox Whales

Which brings us to the blue whales in the Indian Ocean off the southern coast of Sri Lanka. They don’t follow the migration patterns observed in most blue whale populations.

            On October 7^th, 2011, Kat Fourhman of the NC Aquarium at Roanoke Island responded to a stranding of a dead bottlenose dolphin on the shore of Roanoke Sound near Manteo, NC.  Paul Doshkov of Cape Hatteras National Seashore assisted with the investigation.  It was a 175cm (5’ 9”) male.  At that size he would have been around 2 years old, still nursing, growing fast.  Monofilament line from 2 different types of gill nets surrounded the rostrum and left pectoral fin.