Dolphin Stampede Video
A video of hundreds of off the Coast of Orange County, California went viral on You Tube last week. The video, named garnered over 1 million hits. The Video depicts a great scene in what seems to be at the end of a Hollywood Movie as the Whale Watching Ship sailed towards the sunset surrounded by hundreds of Dolphins bow riding beside the ship.
The video really reminded me of how great the Ocean can be, where Dolphins can be seen swimming along side the bow of a ship. I've had the fortunate opportunity to see this wonderful event happen a number of times while at sea in the Gulf Of Mexico. Every time I witnessed this event, I felt overwhelmingly connected to the Ocean and Dolphins to the point where I didn't even want to the bow riding to stop. It was like a natural high. I never wanted it to end as I could watch it forever. So it was great to see a video sharing this beautiful event with the rest of the world.
So you can imagine my surprise when I read the comments on the You Tube video. Many of the comments were negative where some people wrote in that the Dolphins were trying to escape the Whale Watching Ship as they suggested the ship was stressing them out. Other comments made references that the scene reminded them of Taiji, Japan. An finally, some people insulted the Whale Watchers on the ship calling them "Rednecks". I understand that viral videos often get weird comments positive and negative, but I was so disappointed to see that so many people had negative things to say about the videos.
Just to make things clear, Dolphins are known to bow ride (swimming along side the bow of a ship for fun) quite a bit in the Ocean and they have been doing it for centuries (maybe even longer!). Dolphins can often outrun a ship in the Ocean as long as the ship, or ships, are not trying to herd the Dolphins in a Cove for slaughter like in Taiji, Japan. When a ship is just running its course, a pod of dolphins will swim along side many boats zig zagging in front of the boat on their will. So they are never in any danger when they do this. People need to relax when it comes to some Ocean related behaviours such as bow riding.
What really surprises me is that people are always thinking the worst of a situation when the subject in on the Oceans. YES! The Ocean is in trouble and we have many issues with which we must address; however, there are great behaviours, like Bow riding that build on the connection we have with the Ocean.
My point of this article is to say: Stay Positive and We Will Overcome These Issues One By One!
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Please watch: "Manatee: Are they still at risk?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIs3oXJRUtk
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