Mother dolphin cries as she clings to body of her dead baby
Michael McCarthy noticed a distinct silver flash in
the water ahead as he kayaked along the Intracoastal Waterway near St.
Petersburg, Florida. A dolphin was swimming nearby, what appeared to be a small
lifeless carcass.
McCarthy initially thought the dolphins had just finished
their dinner, but as he continued to watch, a tragic event unfolded before him.
“When I
initially observed the dolphin, it took me a moment to realize what I was
seeing. I wanted to think it was a big redfish or something, but it was a dead
calf”, McCarthy, the proprietor of the See Through Canoe Company, said in an
interview.
McCarthy
pulled out his camera and started to document the mother dolphin’s last
journey. She danced a ballet of mourning, stroking her calf’s body.
TWITTER/SEETHROUGHCANOE
She was lucky to not be alone. She was swimming next to another dolphin who appeared to be trying to shield and reassure his companion. With the exception of one dolphin that remained with the mother the entire time, other dolphins briefly joined the mother as she traveled through the Intracoastal Waterway in the direction of the north, according to McCarthy.
McCarthy
said that this strengthened his resolve to document the dolphin’s anguish in
order to “help bring awareness to a situation I witness all the time.”
According
to McCarthy, it’s a frequent misperception among boaters that dolphins are “too
swift to being hit,” but this is untrue. The calves are considerably more at
risk due to their slower swimming speed and increased need to surface for
breath, the expert continued.
According to earlier research, mothers of cetacean animals, such as dolphins and whales, particularly those who have lost young, exhibit grieving behaviors.
McCarthy
shared the video on Twitter last week, and more than 76,000 people have seen it
since then.
McCarthy
writes on Twitter: “It was really hard to watch. That image is going to be
stuck in my head for a while.”
