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Elderly man uses a piece of rope to save two beached dolphins all by himself

Walter Andreoli is a hero.

via J. Maughn/Flickr

Two Pacific white-sided dolphins.

An incredible video from San Antonio Este, Argentina, shows an elderly man saving two stranded dolphins using nothing but a rope. Walter Andreoli, the man who saved what appears to be two Pacific white-sided dolphins, believes they may have beached themselves in an attempt to escape from a pod of orcas.

Dolphins can survive out of water for several hours if they remain wet and cool. If they had been beached for a day, there wasn’t much time left to save them.

“In a second, I sensed what happened because the day before, orcas had been seen in the area,” Andreoli told Pagina12. “Since they eat them, I imagined that these little dolphins fled and, disoriented, were left stranded.”

Even though orcas and dolphins are closely related, dolphins are a regular part of a killer whale’s diet.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Andreoli found the dolphins in a secluded area where no one was there to help, although someone was close enough to shoot footage of the rescue. Even though white-sided dolphins are one of the smaller members of the species, they are still a lot to drag into the ocean. The average adult Pacific white-sided dolphin weighs about 300 to 400 pounds and can be up to 8 feet long.

“In the place where we found them there is no way to call the wildlife watch, we have no phone signal, and their lives were in danger,” Andreoli told Storyful. “The ATV had a rope and I towed them to the water and waited. I waited for the tide to come in and then I saw them leave on their own.”

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Dolphins at a popular tourist spot are bringing gifts to presumably entice humans to return

A pod of dolphins in Queensland, Australia have been bringing gifts from the depths of the sea, presumably to encourage their human friends to return to the shore.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the pod interacted with humans every day at Barnacles Cafe & Dolphin Feeding at Tin Can Bay, north of the Sunshine Coast. The cafe and nature center has a feeding program where people interact with the wild pod every morning.

But the humans are nowhere to be found since the pandemic shut down the cafe.

"The pod has been bringing us regular gifts, showing us how much they're missing the public interaction and attention," the safe posted on Facebook. "They are definitely missing you all."

via via Barnacles Cafe & Dolphin Feeding at Tin Can Bay / Facebook


via Barnacles Cafe & Dolphin Feeding at Tin Can Bay / Facebook

The dolphins aren't just presenting any old shell. The "gifts" are all colorful, ornate items from the ocean floor, sea sponges, barnacle-encrusted bottles and pieces of coral.

A Barnacles volunteer told a reporter from ABC that the dolphins have brought gist before but not nearly as often as they are during lockdown.

"Nothing surprises me with dolphins and their behavior anymore," Barry McGovern, an expert in dolphin behavior, told ABC. "They do everything — they use tools, they have culture, they have something similar to names in signature whistles," he continued.

Although he isn't completely sure the dolphins are bringing up treasures because they miss people. "In all likelihood, they probably don't miss humans per se," he said. "They probably miss a free meal and the routine."

via via Barnacles Cafe & Dolphin Feeding at Tin Can Bay / Facebook

"They often play with bits of weed and coral and all sorts of things and just leave it on their rostrum (nose)," he said. "They're used to getting fed now, so they're used to humans coming in."

There are nine dolphins in the humpback pod that visits Barnacles, Patch, Ella, Squirt, Harmony, Aussie, Valentine, Chompy, White Fin and Mystique, the alpha male. They usually stop by the shoreline near the cafe at around 8 a.m. for a bite of fish and then swim out to see the sea for the day.

This isn't the first time Australian dolphins have engaged in a bit of inter-species gift-giving either. A 2012 report from the journal Anthrozoös found that dolphins sometimes hand over over gifts to wading humans in Tangalooma.

The researchers called it "an established but infrequent part of the culture of the provisioned dolphins." The dolphins were observed handing over dead eels, tuna, squid and an octopus on two frozen occasions.

The dolphins frequently received food from beachgoers, so the gifts could be seen as a form of reciprocity for the food. Researchers also speculate that the dolphins may be sharing their bounty with humans because they are concerned about their ability to hunt.

Regardless of the dolphins' reasoning, the biggest gift may be that they consider us similar to themselves, which is truly beautiful.

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Glowing dolphins off the coast of California this week are almost too magical to believe

Newport Coastal Adventures/Facebook

It may look like a scene from an aquatic version of Avatar, but it's 100% real. In surreal footage taken this week off the coast of Newport Beach, dolphins glow bright blue as they swim through the nighttime waters of the Pacific—a natural bioluminescence phenomenon that never fails to amaze.

The dolphins themselves aren't glowing. Rather, tiny bioluminescent phytoplankton light up the water around them when they are disturbed—hence the blue water in the boat's wake as well. But the effect is totally magical.

Bioluminescence is caused by an algae bloom, commonly referred to as red ride. The glowing waters are a fairly rare phenomenon in Southern California, and Newport Coastal Adventures says the bioluminescence they're seeing right now is the highest its been in years.

What a stunning reminder of just how unbelievably beautiful our world can be.


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Joe Rogan called out SeaWorld’s treatment of dolphins and whales and he makes a great point.

The 2013 documentary "Blackfish" shined a light on the cruelty that orcas face in captivity and created a sea change in the public's perception of SeaWorld and other marine life parks.

This "Blackfish" backlash nearly deep-sixed SeaWorld and led Canada to pass a law that bans oceanariums from breeding whales and dolphins or holding them in captivity. Animals currently being held in Canada's marine parks are allowed to remain as well as those taken in for rehabilitation.

Podcaster and MMA announcer Joe Rogan saluted Canada's decision on a recent episode.

"First of all, what assholes are we that we have those goddman things in captivity? A big fucking shout out to Canada because Canada, mostly probably through the noise that my friend Phil Demers has created in trying to get MarineLand shut down, Canada has banned all dolphin and all whale captivity. It's amazing. I hope the United States does it well, I hope it goes worldwide," Rogan told his guest, economist and mathematician Eric Weinstein.

Rogan has been a big anti-captivity advocate and frequently has Phil Demers, a former walrus trainer at MarineLand in Canada, on his show to discuss animal abuses at marine parks.

12-year-old makes and donates bow ties to help shelter animals find their forever homes.

"I think it's slavery, I really do," Rogan said of whale captivity. "I think it's a different kind of slavery."

While some may be taken aback by Rogan's use of the term "slavery" to describe non-humans, he makes a compelling point. There is a long history of research on dolphins that shows they rival humans, intelligence-wise. As for orcas, "If anything, since orcas are the largest member of the dolphin family, their intelligence is perhaps superior to other dolphins," Lori Marino, a Emory University neuroscientist, told NBC News.

And, like slaves, they are held captive and forced to work for someone making a considerable profit.

Two orcas that have been enslaved the longest are Lolita and Corky, both in captivity for around 50 years.

Lolita is a female orca at Miami Seaquarium who lives in a tank so pitifully small, it would now be deemed illegal. She's been held in captivity since 1970 when she shared the tank with Hugo, a male orca. Hugo died in 1980 in an apparent suicide after bashing his head against the walls of the tank.

It's save the vaquita week. What you should know about the world's most adorable and endangered porpoise.

via Piotr Domanradski / Wikimedia Commons Hugo's carcass being removed from the tank in 1980.

Corky was first captured and put on display at Marineland in California in 1969. Shortly before that park's closure in 1987, she was sold to SeaWorld and has lived there ever since.

Throughout her time in confinement, Corky gave birth to six calves, all sired by her cousin and tankmate, Orky. None of them survived. Orky died in 1988.

via Bryce Bradford / Flickr


The Great Whales - Corky's First Calfwww.youtube.com

Rogan hopes the U.S. will wise up and put an end to whale and dolphin captivity, but will it ever happen?

In 2016, the state of California banned orca shows for entertainment purposes and breeding of captive orcas. Since, SeaWorld San Diego's shows have become more educational in nature.

In 2015, California Congressman Adam Schiff proposed legislation that would prohibit breeding of captive orcas and prevent wild capture for the purpose of display. The act would ultimately phase out all orca captivity in the U.S. but has not seen much movement through Congress since its introduction.

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