There has been a sinister update on the dolphin that was ‘playing with a family’ off the coast of the UK.
An urgent warning has now been issued as the behaviour from Reggie took a turn.
The bottlenose dolphin had gone viral after joining a family for an early morning swim earlier this month in Lyme Bay, Dorset.
He’d been interacting with them in the water, rolling over for ‘belly rubs’ and ‘playing’ with them. The family said it was a ‘magical moment’ as the dolphin wasn’t at all ‘distressed’ by their presence.
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Reggie arrived in the area back in February and has become a bit of a frequent sight there. But UK marine conservation charity ORCA has now warned people to stay away from him, with women said to have been ‘targeted’ recently.
Kayaker Rhys Paterson said he had to intervene with another boater when Reggie started jumping on top of a woman, repeatedly pushing her head under the water.
Recorded on 14 August, a clip shows the swimmer saying: “it scared me to death! Oh my goodness!”
Rhys said this wasn’t the only confrontation, as Reggie seemed to be ‘targeting women in wetsuits’.
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"We saved two swimmers who were fairly deep, where the dolphin kept jumping on them," the developmental officer from Lyme Regis said. "The dolphin was basically drowning this woman - it kind of jumped on her back four times."
Rhys and his brother had been following the ‘local legend’ but were shocked when they realised ‘it wasn’t playing’.
“People need to understand that it's not an amusement arcade. It's a wild animal. It can snap all of a sudden if it wants to,” he added.
And the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has warned the public to keep away from the lone dolphin.
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It said human interaction can cause dolphins to lose their natural wariness, leading to ‘injury or death’.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) also says there are ‘serious concerns’ for public safety after Reggie’s ‘rapid’ change in behaviour.
It explains that when a dolphin isn’t given ‘due consideration and respect, interactions can escalate', which can potentially ‘result in injury or death for either party’.
Danny Groves from WDC told The Mirror that when dolphins get used to human contact, it puts them in danger of being hit by boats or propellers.
“What seems like a friendly bond is actually habituation - the dolphin changing their behaviour to fit a human presence. He is being habituated by people who insist on interacting with him, a process that happens through a number of stages and levels. Each stage is driven by how often and how closely people interact,” he said.
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"Typically, it can take several months for a solitary dolphin to progress from stage 0 (no interaction with people or boats) to stage 4 (full interaction with people and boats), but the Lyme Regis individual has reached Stage 4 within a matter of weeks, which is now a cause for serious concern, both for the dolphin and for public safety."
Jess Battison