Dolphins simply need to have enjoyable, panelists’ experiences inform them

by Kevin Cody

“Why do dolphins surf?” drew a standing room solely viewers to the Manhattan Beach Library final Wednesday, September 17. The panel dialogue was offered by the Roundhouse Aquarium’s Coastal Bottlenose Dolphin Project. 

The night started with a screening of “Why Dolphins Surf,” edited by Roundhouse Aquarium Boardmember Lynn Gross, a former tv producer and former communications professor at Cal State Fullerton.

The video was shot by Coastal Bottlenose Dolphin Project founder Eric Martin, co-director of the Roundhouse Aquarium. 

Martin started videoing dolphins in 2018 after discovering drones might report beforehand unseen dolphin habits. Until then, Martin mentioned, most dolphin analysis was with dolphins in captivity. That analysis, Martin acknowledged, made vital contributions to understanding how dolphins echo-locate, thermo-regulate, and talk. 

But little analysis had been accomplished on dolphins within the ocean. The Dolphin Project is working to fill that hole, relying largely on Martin’s drone footage of the three dolphin pods that reside within the Santa Monica Bay.

Among the Dolphin Project’s discoveries is that bottlenose dolphins dwell longer than beforehand believed. Martin mentioned dolphins had been beforehand thought to dwell about 16 years. But the Dolphin Project has recognized one dolphin considered 75-years-old.

Following screening of the video, Roundhouse Aquarium Boardmember and former Cal State University Dominguez biology professor John Roberts advised the viewers the six most typical theories on why dolphins surf:

• To take away parasites from their pores and skin
• To socialize.
• To set up the pecking order.
• To apply survival abilities.
• To apply driving boat bow wakes.
• For enjoyable.

Then, regardless of Robert’s warning to not anthropomorphize dolphins, the three panelists, all surfers, got here to the identical conclusion for why dolphins surf.

“It’s fun,” mentioned Jason Shanks, proprietor of the Nikau Kai Waterman Shop in downtown Manhattan Beach. “Surfing’s the high point of my day,” he added.

Martin recalled driving his 20-foot skiff off of Palos Verdes sooner or later when Orcas started driving his bow wake. He left the wheel untended to lean over the bow, ensuing within the boat handing over vast circles. The orcas, which had been the size of his boat, saved bow browsing, he mentioned, main him additionally to conclude they did it for enjoyable.

Panelist John Dorsey, a retired Loyola Marymount University science professor, mentioned his most attention-grabbing dolphin expertise was in El Porto on a current Thanksgiving.

He and a pal had been paddling out to surf when a wave got here in. As they ducked-dived beneath the wave, they noticed they had been on a collision course with a dolphin. The dolphin narrowly prevented hitting them by doing what Doesey described as a “standing Island pullout,’ which refers to a surfer pulling out of a wave by burying the nostril, as a substitute of the tail, of the board. 

As the dolphin buried its nostril, its tail got here up and flicked the watch off his pal’s wrist, Dorsey mentioned.

It was too exact a maneuver to be something however playful, Dorsey concluded.

Martin advised his viewers that it’s unlawful to harass marine mammals. Harassment, he mentioned, is inflicting hurt, or interfering with their regular habits. People are supposed to remain a minimum of 100 yards away from marine mammals. But if dolphins method, the regulation doesn’t require surfers to paddle. 

“Just don’t try to pet them,” Martin mentioned.

For upcoming Roundhouse Aquarium occasions go to RoundHouseAquarium.org. ER