10 Cool Things About Dolphins

There was a story not too long ago, about a pod of dolphins that saved some swimmers off the coast in New Zealand. Why were they being saved? A great white shark was trying to get to the swimmers, and a group of dolphins just suddenly appeared, surrounding the swimmers, and slapping the water with their tails to ward off the shark. Pretty damn cool!

This little story starts off a great top ten list of why Dolphins are so cool.

10 Cool Things About Dolphins

A sub-species of the dolphin family is the Irrawaddy dolphin.

Reports are mixed on just how vulnerable the Irrawaddy is. It does appear that they have become threatened of late and are in danger of becoming extinct.

They travel in small pods of around 10 dolphins and spread out over large areas. They tend to be found in rivers or in shallow marine waters in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and North Australia. Their appearance reminds me a little of the Beluga Whales.

If you're curious to learn more about the Irrawaddy dolphin, please check out the following links:

World Wildlife Fund: Irrawaddy Dolphin

Freshwater Irrawaddy Dolphins

Introduction to the Irrawaddy Dolphin

Ban for Rare Asian Dolphin Trade

Global Nature

I know the year is rapidly closing, but just a reminder that this year of 2007 has been dubbed worldwide as the "Year of the Dolphin." Be sure to check out their site and follow their news.

Here's a photo of what an Irrawaddy Dolphin looks like:



(Photo copied from http://marinebio.org)

Mahalo,

Dolphin