Dolphin Foundation Gatsby Party Aug. 27 at ONE Club
The ONE Club Gulf Shores Gatsby Party, a fundraiser for the Dolphin Foundation of Gulf Shores, will be held on Saturday, August 27 from 6 p.m. ‘til midnight at the ballroom at the Gulf Shores facility. Enjoy a fun evening of dance, music, entertainment, and fabulous fare. Fancy yourself a step back in time with pearls and black ties, hats and hooplah, games and dance all night long. Tickets are $45 per person. For more info, call 844-ONE-CLUB, email RSVP@ONEClubGulfShores.com or visit the heonefoundation.com. The Dolphin Foundation for Education and Arts is dedicated to providing the most enriching educational experience possible for Gulf Shores City Schools students. More info: thegsdf.org.
A dolphin attacked and injured two swimmers in Japan last weekend. The dolphin attack occurred on the waters off a beach in the Ayukawa district of Fukui prefecture. The unsuspecting victims also suffered minor wounds. This adds to the latest series of incident which forced local authorities to issue warning for beachgoers to avoid the marine mammals.
The authorities have also installed warning signs at the Koshino beach, where an apparent lone dolphin has attacked a number of people recently. The increased measures placed by authorities came after the cascade of dolphin assaults in the region last month. The lurking threat also led to the emergency of some theories on whether the dolphin’s aggressive behavior is caused by humans or not.
However, local sources also reported the attacks consist of not one but many dolphins in the same coastal area in Koshino, where related cases have been seen as early as April 2022. While it is still unclear if certain anthropogenic or natural factors have caused such behavior, separate yet related incidents show dolphins also possess an innate tendency for violence.
The animal attack reminds us of the previous warnings by experts, including animal behaviorists. The warning indicates that the friendly, sociable-looking dolphins that were thought they we are also capable of engaging in aggressive behavior. Possessing a degree of intelligence, the mammals also reportedly experience emotional stress, leading to unprovoked attacks on humans.
Japan Dolphin Attack
(Photo : Photo by RAYMOND ROIG/AFP via Getty Images)
The Fukui Coast Guard Station on Monday, August 8, stated they received a call regarding the dolphin attack at around 11:40 a.m. local time on Sunday, August 7. The station highlighted the two swimmers were a 39-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man, as cited by The Epoch Times.
Coast guard officials reportedly said the woman was in the waters, located 15 meters offshore Koshino beach, when a dolphin slammer her back. The mammal continued to bit her on her palm and wrist when she attempted to get back into the shoreline.
Meanwhile, the male swimmer was bitten on his palm and elbow when he attempted to help the woman by driving away the dolphin.
According to SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, bottlenose dolphins engage in social organization and formed a group known as “a pod of dolphins”; however, these animals also show aggression and maintain dominance. This is done through biting, chasing, smacking their tails in the water, and among others.
In relation to the recent incident in Japan, at least 10 dolphin attacks have been reported in Fukui city since July, according to local media outlet JANI News.
Texas Coast Aggressive Dolphin
Outside Japan, an aggressive dolphin behavior incident occurred off the Texas coast in the United States in May.
The NOAA cited a report of biologists that the animal showed aggressive behavior by luring children away from their parents and swimming pets from their owners.
Two swimmers in Japan suffered minor injuries after being attacked by a dolphin, the latest in a series of incidents that prompted authorities to warn beachgoers against approaching the mammals.
The Fukui Coast Guard Station said Monday that it received a call at about 11:40 a.m. on Aug. 7 about a 39-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man being attacked by a dolphin at a beach in Fukui’s Ayukawa district.
The woman was swimming about 15 meters offshore when a dolphin slammed her back. The dolphin bit her on her left palm and wrist when she attempted to return to the beach, The Asahi Shimbun reported, citing coast guard officials.
The second swimmer, who was not far from the woman, tried to help her by driving away the dolphin, resulting in him being bitten on the palm of his right hand and his left elbow.
The dolphin kept on poking him with its snout when he tried to return to the beach until the man kicked it away. The man required three stitches to his right hand as a result of the attack.
Japanese authorities have previously warned swimmers not to approach dolphins after receiving reports of people being bitten by the mammals.
Authorities installed warning signs saying “Never Touch Dolphins” at Koshino beach, where a number of people have been attacked by a dolphin lately. Officials also plan to install devices that emit ultrasonic sound waves on some beaches in an attempt to drive the marine mammals away from the beach, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
Tetsuya Matsuoka, manager of the Notojima Aquarium in Nanao in the neighboring Ishikawa Prefecture, said dolphins inhabit a range of waters around Japan, according to The Asahi Shimbun.
“People have this image of dolphins as cute creatures, but they are wild animals after all,” said Matsuoka. “You should not go near them or touch them because they have sharp teeth.”
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Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer based in Malaysia, covering Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.
A baby dolphin found dead in Kratie’s Chitr Borei district on August 7. FN
Officials are working to determine the exact cause of death of an Irrawaddy baby dolphin that was found dead at the Anlong Kampi conservation area in Sambok commune of Kratie province’s Chitr Borei district.
Anlong Kampi fishing community chief Thon Tharong told The Post that fishermen found the carcass, a male weighing just over 10kg, on August 7 and handed it over to officials for an autopsy by specialists from the Fisheries Administration (FiA).
FiA’s provincial cantonment director Mok Ponlok said officials were working with the national team and World Wide Fund for Nature Cambodia (WWF Cambodia) to determine the exact cause of death.
Ouk Vibol, director of the FiA’s Department of Fisheries Conservation, said the autopsy indicated that the dolphin had died due to electric shock.
“Our autopsy discovered bruising and blood clots in the heart of the dolphin. Our early conclusion is that these are consistent with an electric shock,” he told The Post.
According to Vibol, the baby dolphin was just over three weeks old. Officials had yet to observe it before its death, so it was never recorded as part of the local population.
According to WWF Cambodia data, seven dolphins have died since January, four calves and three adults. Five newborns have been recorded.
Irrawaddy dolphins are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as an “endangered” species.
The results of the 2020 census by the FiA and WWF Cambodia showed that there were only 89 Irrawaddy dolphins living in the Mekong River in Cambodia.
WWF Cambodia public affairs and information management director Tep Asnarith said fisheries crime still poses a serious threat to dolphin conservation.
“Only by ending fishing offences in these protected areas can we hope to increase the numbers of this endangered dolphin,” he added.
Baby Dolphin Suspected of Being Electrocuted in Kratie
PHNOM PENH – A 6-week-old baby dolphin was found dead near the Kampi dolphin canyon in Kratie province. The cause of death is still unknown, but experts do not exclude a fatal electric shock.
The baby dolphin was found floating dead on Aug. 7, about 200 meters from the Kampi dolphin canyon in Kratie province. Seng Teak, WWF country director for Cambodia, confirmed that the dead dolphin was about six weeks old, weighed 13 kilograms, and was 102 centimeters long.
Regarding how the baby dolphin died, the director of WWF told Cambodianess that the exact cause remains unclear because there is no mark of injuries on the body.
“We will take a look at its heart to check the cause of death. We’ll take a sample to see if it could come from an electric shock,” he said.
Because of their impact on ecosystems, electrocuting fishing gear has been forbidden in Cambodia since 2007. But some fishermen still use such devices illegally.
In 2022, a total of seven dolphins died. Four of them were baby dolphins (including the newly dead one), while only five births were recorded so far this year.
The results of the 2020 Mekong dolphin census by the Fisheries Administration and WWF showed that only 89 dolphins were living in Cambodia’s part of the Mekong River. A new census will be released in 2023.
Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, this story was translated by Sam Sopich for Cambodianess.
Raising concerns over the death of the seventh freshwater dolphin this year, Kratie provincial authorities launched an investigation on Sunday.
The dead freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin was found at the Kampi Dolphin Canyon Conservation Area in Kampi village of Sambok commune in Chet Borei district of Kratie province.
The heart sample of the dead dolphin has been sent for study to know the exact reason of its death, said the authorities.
Seng Teak, country director of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Cambodia, said that the dead dolphin weighing 13kg was a six-week old male calf.
Teak added, “The Kingdom now has only 89 river dolphins, as per 2020 statistics. To know the revised number of river dolphins, we have to wait until 2023.”
Teak said: “From January till now, a total of seven dolphins have died, four were calves and three were adults. However, the authorities could not find the reason for the four deaths, while the other three died of fishing gear entanglement.”
Tep Asnarith, another WWF official, said the freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin is ranked as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, and is restricted to a 180 km stretch of the mainstream Mekong River in Cambodia between Kratie province and the border area with Laos.
The latest records show that five new dolphins were born this year.
The Sea of Cortez is an absolutely beautiful place. And no one is better qualified to show off that beauty than a man named Carlos Gauna, also known as the Malibu Artist. His drone footage usually captures the beauty of Southern California. But this time, Gauna points his lens above a different body of water, and captures a pod of orcas killing a dolphin, a rarely seen site. But Gauna has made a lot of rarely seen sites a lot more accessible in the last few years.
FUKUI–Two adult bathers here suffered minor hand and elbow injuries after they were bitten by a dolphin, according to the Fukui Coast Guard Station.
The Aug. 7 incident followed a series of recent dolphin attacks at city beaches and warnings by the authorities not to approach the mammals in shallow waters.
A wildlife expert warned that dolphins not only bite but also sometimes resort to charging swimmers at high speed or forcing them into deeper waters offshore.
A female bather at a beach in Fukui’s Ayukawa district made an emergency call around 11:40 a.m. on Aug. 7 to report that “two people are being attacked by a dolphin.”
Coast guard station officials said a dolphin slammed into the back of a 39-year-old Fukui woman who was swimming about 15 meters offshore.
The mammal bit the palm of her left hand and left wrist as she tried to return to the beach. The dolphin kept attacking her by pulling at her swimsuit, the officials said.
A 50-year-old man from Sakai, Fukui Prefecture, swam close to the woman to rescue her, but the dolphin also bit him on the palm of his right hand and his left elbow when he tried to drive the mammal away.
The dolphin constantly poked the man with its snout as it chased the bather, who by then was swimming frantically back to the beach. But it swam away after the man managed to kick it, the officials said.
The man required three stitches to his right hand, which will take about a week to heal.
A number of other bathers were attacked and bitten by dolphins in prefectural waters in late July. Another beach in the city put up warning signs urging bathers not to touch or approach dolphins.
