In my inbox today was this video of a remarkable bit of animal behaviour captured on video. It shows the famous manta night dive in Hawai’i interrupted by a dolphin, which seems to solicit help from a diver for a case of fishing line entanglement. The dolphin holds patiently still while the diver carefully removes the line, first with his fingers and then with a pair of scissors (who carries scissors while diving!?). When the majority of the job is done, the dolphin heads off into the blackness.
11 Replies to “Extraordinary dolphin footage”
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Remarkable. Is the area known for tame dolphins?
Well there’s certainly lots of dolphins around the Hawaiian islands. I can’t speak to the presence of more tame dolphins on the Kona coast (perhaps others can chime in), but certainly that dive spot is much more famous for its manta rays.
FANTASTIC!! i was in tears watching this video. thank you so much for your love of the ocean, and kindness towards other creatures
“who carries scissors while diving?!” Experienced divers. Seriously, trauma shears are about a million times more useful than a big, look how macho I am, dive knife.
Well I’m a pretty experienced diver and I carry neither of those, just a small knife in case of kelp, to cut a strap ICE, or to sever the airhoses of enemy spies. I’m willing to bet you a pair that it’s a minority even among experienced divers to carry scissors on every dive.
Anywhere where you run the risk of getting tangled in monofilament, you’ll find that a nice pair of trauma shears is going to be the safer and more effective option. Cutting kelp, straps, or air hoses is easier with these – http://www.divers-supply.com/-P3754.aspx?afid=1&utm_source=adwordsfroogle&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=adwordsfroogle&utm_content=3754&gclid=CJOL2pmGybYCFQU4nAodMhsAsg
I always carry a line cutter like this http://www.omsdive.com/cuttool.html works great. Shears can be difficult to operate with gloves on.
I learned to dive in the 70’s and since I primarily dive fresh water, my Instructor taught us to always carry scissors. You can run into fishing line, rope, weeds, any number of things. I have a stainless steel bandage scissor on a lanyard behind my ankle knife.
Hey guys, look at the video looks like the diver is using a pair of pliers/leathermen (line cutter). I just did this dive a couple of weeks ago at this site. The videographer that does most of the videos, is not a native english speaker, perhaps in writing the subtitles she was using scissors loosely.
Ya the Mantas are extremely tame (bump into divers as if they aren’t even there). Given how often that site has divers, and that from talking to some of the guides who run the trips, it seems the coastal population of mantas frequent a relatively small range with some repeatability to their daily migrations between different sites, it’s not a surprise that a dolphin would figure how to find help.
If you can find a good sheath/BCD attachment for one, a serrated 3.25″ victorinox paring knife , runs you about 5 bucks, and works wonders at cutting any line from monofilament to 1 inch hemp.
http://www.cutleryandmore.com/victorinox-forschner/serrated-paring-knife-p15491
Line cutters are handy, but of all possible disentangling tools, trauma shears (and other scissor like devices) are the only ones than can cut through lines that aren’t under tension.
Yes… I would say that most competent cold-water divers I dive with carry two from three of shears, line cutter tool and knife. Scissors work out better if you can’t get a reasonable degree of tension in a line then your knife is just no good.