Dolphin Etiquette

Hi All, Our day started out well, finding all three dolphins coming toward us as we approached Leeward. I swam with everyone. Snipper seemed particularily friendly. I think he's warming up to me. Another boat came along and put swimmers in which as usual changed how they were acting. They headed away. JoJo in particular was really fed up with one persistant swimmer and pumped his tail to make a fast get away! Later, after they came back together, John thought he saw one with a plastic bag in his mouth. I thought I'd better get in quick in case one of them was trying to eat it. As I got in JoJo came up to me and we watched as Snipper was at the bottom with a plastic bag in his mouth. He was playing with it! Draping it over his pec the usual dolphin games! He brought it up by me and I committed the dolphin game faux pas of picking it up. Now I have learned that when the dolphins play games with marine toys they are happy to have me watch however they don't want me to take the toy and play with them. It has been driven home that plastic bags can choke and kill marine animals and I wanted to take it away! They however are way smarter and weren't planning on eating it only playing with it! Apparently this bothered Snipper who gave me the cold shoulder for the rest of the day! I will continue taking all trash out of the water but not if the dolphins are playing with it!

Dolphin Etiquette from Jay Sargent on Vimeo.