“Mud netting” is a hunting technique that a few populations of dolphins in Florida use. While in shallow water with loose sediment on the bottom, a dolphin will swim in a circle around a school of fish, beating its tail flukes against the sea floor and creating a “net” of mud around the fish. Terrified and confused, the fish leap out of the net and right into the waiting dolphins’ mouths.
Earlier today, a relative of mine thought I might be interested in a few newspaper articles about the local dolphins from a Tampa newspaper called the Beach Beacon. I read several of the papers, and one particularly grabs my attention. The article is by Ann Weaver, and this one section from one paragraph makes me curious. It says…
“He [”Vidalia” the dolphin, from Tampa Bay] perfected a marvelous hunting technique that involved blowing nice big bubbles and stamping his tail to create circles of mud plumes that neatly corralled fish he could chomp at leisure. Many times this spring, we watched him hunt like this in the shallow sea where the seafloor is thick with sandy mud and sandy mud inhabitants, including stingrays.”
The date on the article is June 22, 2017. It does not say if fish leaped out of Vidalia’s mud circles, and if this is the “mud netting” behavior, I’m not sure what the “blowing nice big bubbles” part would be about.
It could be that Vidalia had discovered “part” of this hunting technique, but did not utilize it the same way that dolphins in Florida Bay and northwest Florida do.
Anyway, this is quite interesting. I almost wonder if the “mud netting” technique might “spread” to Tampa Bay as well as southwest and northwest Florida.
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