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Dolphin Encounters

by Scarlet Colley - December, 1999

Welcome to the new millennium and hopefully a new era in awareness of our fragile planet that hosts not only our own species but all the other incredible species we share it with. Of course living on the Laguna Madre bay daily as Capt. Colley and I do on our laguna skimmer taking nature lovers out to enjoy the very special life of our bay, we feel it is our duty to help the bay stay healthy. Probably the main thing we can all do is to help keep the bay and the island free of trash especially plastics. If we all respect the bay and what it gives to us all then it is hard to toss a can or bottle carelessly overboard or out the car window. It just takes caring. And it does mean that those of us who do care have to unfortunately pick up after those who don't. I always like to tell the school children we work with on marine life education that the dolphins and all the creatures of their world do not use plastic bottles to drink from or cans so why clutter their world with our trash.

Our dolphins are very healthy and we just recently lost one. It was sad as we were taking out a dolphin encounter group out to enjoy our wild dolphins that we have been filming and documenting for five years now and we saw the great body floating in the channel. I knew it was a dolphin from a distance with the pectoral fin in the air instead of the usual dorsal. I fought back tears as I wondered why this dolphin died and who it might be. As we got close and I got a rope ready to tow her in I could see the dorsal fin and recognized her as one in Cookie's group. We gently brought her ashore and it was then we could see by her teeth that she had had a long good life as they were worn and yellow and with no other visible injuries she had most likely succumbed to old age. Since we have had dolphins die of man related causes we were relieved that this was most likely nature taking its course. Capt. Colley and I were saddened to lose one of our beloved dolphins and she will be missed... It is when one dies of man related events that we feel that of course we can make a difference in the health of our wild dolphins of the Laguna Madre bay. .. Some of you that have read our previous articles know about Cookie. You can go to our web page and read all the previous articles we have written on our dolphin family for the Parade at FIN2FEATHER.com.and see pictures too.

For the health of our wild dolphins the most important thing we can all do is to not feed them as we have written about this before, yet we continually see people trying to lure our dolphins up to their boats throwing out fish. What they do not realize is the dolphins will come near the boats because they are interested in you as another mammal or creature and they don't need the food. They are well fed by their own feeding on the multitude of fish in the bay and this way they do not get sick by eating old fish and they come near the boats because they want too not for a hand out and that makes an encounter even more special. Besides it is against the law and there is a considerably high fine to feed them. It's not fine to feed them it's a fine to feed them.....we try to ask the boaters we see feeding them to please realize what they are doing to the social structure of the dolphin family by feeding them. Many times it is just lack of education that people feel they have to feed the dolphins and once they realize the overall damage they are more than willing to just enjoy them as wild and not sea world dolphins. We would have so many dolphins dying if they depended on humans to feed them. Our bay is the bay of plenty and to sit back and observe our family of dolphins as they feed and play in the bay is a gift so many that don't live here don't have.

We who live here and make our living on the bay or the island can do so much to see its future be safe and healthy for all the incredible creatures who share the bay with us. For a list of things you can do to help visit our web site FIN2FEATHER.com and email us. Or call us at 956-739-BIRD

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