14 DAY TRIAL // Folks who decide to enjoy a quiet day at the beach in eastern Australian might find themselves approached by a bottlenose dolphin. What's more, odds are the bottlenose dolphin will prove more than willing to become friends.
As cool as being friend with a dolphin might sound, specialists say that folks would to best to avoid the marine mammal, and not play with it.
According to The Guardian, the bottlenose dolphin is about three or four years old. Back in 2012, it became stranded at Sussex Inlet, and was caught and released back into the ocean.
For some reason, the dolphin has decided to stick around Australia's east coast, and appears to have taken quite a liking to people.
Thus, it often joins groups of swimmers and surfers, and sometime even spends hours on end with them. Just this Monday, the dolphin is reported to have swum alongside people bathing off Shelly beach in Manly.
Experts are asking that people keep from interacting with the animal not because they have something against the dolphin's making some friends, but because they wish to make sure the animal stays wild and will therefore be able to join a pod one day.
“It’s very hard to resist her when she swims right up to you, but we’re trying to get people to limit their interaction. Particularly for the surfers it’s very difficult because she’s grabbing their leg ropes and jumping over their boards, so just stay still and enjoy the view,” Shona Lorigan with the Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia told the press.
“It is our hope that by limiting her interactions we are encouraging her to continue being a wild dolphin so she will eventually reintegrate with a wild pod,” she added.
A pod of wild dolphins is known to currently inhabit the waters off Sydney's northern beaches. Shona Lorigan and her colleagues hope this is the group that will soon become the friendly dolphin's family.