Dolphins

It’s not really news worthy, but last Saturday, while I was out at sea off the coast of Beirut, our boat was surrounded for a good half hour with 6 playing dolphins. They were circling the boat, swimming along with it and jumping over the wake. I was thinking, wow, they look just like in real life, until I realized that I only know dolphins from dolphin shows and NatGeo documentaries, so this was – for once – the real ‘real life’.

If you Google it, dolphins in Lebanese waters is not that rare a sight, but you have to have an eye for it, which I don’t, but hubbie is a sailor, and he spots them quite easily. Usually they keep their distance from boats, but we were chugging along at 12 kmph, and it seemed that pleased them quite a bit.

They are common bottle nose dolphins, which populate the entire globe, but they have a hard time in Lebanon because fishermen are not too keen on them, afraid they ‘steal’ their fish and damage their nets. That’s an odd statement as it is the fishermen stealing the dolphins’ fish, but as it is, they tend to end up in the nets now and then and are not set free, but rater towed to shore and exhibited as a trophy, which is very unfortunate, as it is an absolute delight seeing them swim around the boat. 

It gives hope, maybe the shoreline is not that polluted yet (or maybe they have a high tolerance to polluted waters).