Don’t be lured into feeding wild dolphins!
Posted: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 3:47 PM
By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent
SARASOTA BAY, Fla. – Off of Florida’s Gulf Coast, lives perhaps the most unusual wild dolphin: "Beggar."
It’s a nickname earned years ago when this highly intelligent bottle-nosed dolphin learned there’s more than one way to satiate his appetite.
Beggar, you see, has turned the tables and trained humans.
They come almost every day and fall into his trap.
This aging dolphin listens for the propeller of an engine, swims up alongside a boat, rolls to his side, and with his etched smile, appears to stare right into the eyes of those on board. And so the seduction begins.
Beggar wants food.
Routinely, excited kids and adults succumb to his charm, reach into a cooler, and pull out something to eat.
And that’s the problem say federal authorities.
Feeding human food to a dolphin can be dangerous, mostly to the dolphin.
"He's gotten chips, sandwiches, pickles, sardines, beer," said Randall Wells, a biologist with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.
Human food can make a dolphin ill. "It might even kill him," said Wells.
Feeding a dolphin can also result in a $12,000 fine, but truth is, it’s hard for agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to spot a feeding in progress.
Instead, there’s an all-out effort under way to tell boaters what they should already know: Don’t feed the wild dolphins!
That message, in a most entertaining way, is now part of a public service campaign.
"Its common sense, in the same way you don’t go to the national park and feed a bear," said Laura Engleby, a NOAA scientist.
The growing fear now, as Beggar continues to get hand-outs, is that other dolphins will learn that they can do the same thing, too. "I worry more dolphins will become habituated to this behavior," said Engleby.
And then there’s the danger to humans.
One boater called biologists at nearby Mote Marine Laboratory demanding they capture Beggar and cut him open.
"Turns out, the tourist had gotten a little too close with his hand, and Beggar not only ate the food, but latched onto his fingers, pulling the guy’s wedding ring off," said Wells.
Needless to say, the researchers did not capture, kill and cut open Beggar just to retrieve the missing wedding ring.
