Human-seeking dolphin should be treated with care

A dolphin that has been approaching swimmers in Cornwall should be treated with care, experts have said.

The lone animal was seen swimming with more than 10 children and adults in Hayle Harbour on Sunday.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said it decided to "lure" the bottlenose dolphin out to sea when "things got out of hand".

"For some reason these unusual dolphins become detached from their pods and seek human interaction rather than other dolphins," said Dan Jarvis from BDMLR.

Dolphins can injure people when they thrash their tails.

Mr Jarvis said: "The dolphin was definitely encouraging and initiating all of the interaction.

"But he was getting quite boisterous and as we were watching we could see his behaviour escalating and getting more erratic.

"So we did get concerned that, especially with young children being there, someone was going to get seriously hurt."

Mr Jarvis said in the past solitary dolphins have injured people.

He said: "They have been known to break ribs and all sorts so we don’t want that happening here."

The Hayle Surf Lifesaving Club boat managed to lure the animal safely out to sea, after helping people out of the water.

The animal could be seen thrashing its tail, which Mr Jarvis said "would not be a gentle tap, it would be a full on slap - like being punched by a boxer".

In recent years there have been other examples of solitary dolphins that interacted with people and got close to boats.

In 2015, one called Clet was regularly seen off Cornwall and Devon, and later appeared off Pembrokeshire.

In 2007, there was another that was known as George and seen off Cornwall.

Earlier this year, another solitary animal called Danny was killed after being hit by a boat.

The animal seen in Hayle Harbour has become known as Nick, because it has a "a distinctive little notch In the top of his or her dorsal fin", Mr Jarvis said.

Experts first became aware of Nick in June 2020 when it was seen in the Isles of Scilly, and it was spotted there again in July 2021.

It has since been seen in the Helford Passage, off Penzance, and closely following boats near St Ives.

Bottlenose dolphins can grow up to 13ft (4m) long.

Liz Sandeman, co-founder of charity Marine Connection, said: “Sadly, the more these dolphins become habituated through prolonged human contact and behaviours like this develop, the greater the potential for accidents and injury to both the dolphin and members of the public to occur. 

"Dolphins are powerful marine mammals and have been known to, albeit unintentionally at times, seriously injure people when thrashing their tail or even butting them with their snout."