Killer Dolphins
"They're big, wild animals," said Dr. Andrew J. Read, a biologist at the Duke University Marine Laboratory who studies dolphin attacks. "And people should respect them as such." Of course, dolphin savagery pales in comparison with the brutality of people, who have managed to kill millions of dolphins while fishing for tuna. The dolphins, which breathe air, drown when large purse seine nets close over their heads. Fishery reforms seek to limit the slaughter.
Closely related to whales, the 32 species that make up the dolphin family (Delphinidae, in scientific nomenclature) include killer whales, which grow up to 30 feet long and are famous for their aggressive hunting pods. But the rest are smaller. The common dolphin is up to 7 feet long, and the bottlenose, up to 12 feet. Many dolphins have a pronounced beak and all have a central dorsal fin and sharp teeth for feeding, mainly on squid and fish. Significantly for humans, the mouths of many species turn upward in a perpetual grin. As a result, the animals have long fascinated people. Ancient Greeks reported altruism in dolphins, saying they had rescued lost seafarers, and often depicted the animals in art.
But now that image is being shattered as scientists document the grim slaughters. The research began around 1990 after large-scale deaths of dolphins and other marine mammals were discovered globally. In Europe and the United States, observation programs were started that sought the biological, ecological and behavioral secrets of wild dolphins. At first, a virus was implicated in many of the deaths.
The first clues to the deliberate killings were found on a large bay on the northeast coast of Scotland known as the Moray Firth. Dr. Ben Wilson, a dolphin expert at the University of Aberdeen, was first to discover these clues, and along with Dr. Harry M. Ross, a veterinarian at the Scottish Agricultural College, he began recording data. The duo focused on harbor porpoises, marine mammals up to five feet long, that were turning up dead with a strange mix of injuries, including multiple skeletal fractures and damaged internal organs. Suspects included boats and fishing nets. But in 1994 the researchers discovered a newly killed porpoise, its flank torn by bloody tooth marks - marks that perfectly matched the 0.45-inch spacing of the teeth of adult bottlenose dolphins. "It was, 'Oh my God, the animals I've been studying for the last 10 years are killing
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