Dolphins caught on film raiding crab pots in world first footage

November 16, 2023 6:12 PM

Dolphins caught on film raiding crab pots in fascinating world-first footage. The video shows the dolphins using their eyes, rostrum and teeth to retrieve bait off the coast of Western Australia, in what researchers say is an opportunity to learn more about how the animals learn and transmit new behaviours.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (14 comments total)

I worry this is going to make fishermen worldwide hate them (dolphins, not crabs) even more than they already do.
posted by aramaic at 6:25 PM on November 16, 2023

Stop snitching.
posted by tigrrrlily at 6:44 PM on November 16, 2023 [9 favorites]

If you see some dolphins around you can guarantee you're going to get your crab nets raided

This is the entirety of the Florida high school sex ed curriculum.
posted by PlusDistance at 7:22 PM on November 16, 2023 [16 favorites]

So long, and thanks for all the...
posted by praemunire at 7:26 PM on November 16, 2023

See also, River Otters raiding crab traps.
posted by Rumple at 9:19 PM on November 16, 2023

if you see a dolphin raiding crab pots, no you didn’t
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 1:11 AM on November 17, 2023 [7 favorites]

"Write by WASTE. The government will open it if you use the other. The dolphins will be mad. Love the dolphins."
posted by chavenet at 1:18 AM on November 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

“I had a dolphin raid my crab pot last night.” is such a euphemism.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:32 AM on November 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

"You wouldn't believe the things he could do with his rostrum."
posted by PlusDistance at 8:30 AM on November 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

It's no surprise, dolphins are mean evil creatures.
posted by KathyAnn61 at 8:35 AM on November 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's no surprise, dolphins are mean evil creatures.

Considering you created an account today in order to post this, I feel like there is more backstory to your comment?
posted by nanook at 9:47 AM on November 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Possibly, the poster is a crab pot. I sympathize.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:51 AM on November 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Snitches get eeeeoooeekeekaEEEKEEKEEKwhoopclickclickawEEEchirpchirpawhoopchirpEEEEEchirpchirp whoopwhoopclickclickEEEEoooeeeOOOOOOchirpwhoopwhoopeekaeekaEEKEEKEEKitches.
posted by signal at 3:33 PM on November 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

So back in my sailing days, before the Windsurfer™ was invented, the "local-knowledge" trick for mariners gunking around here in Vancouver's English Bay and out in the Salish Sea was to get a crab-fishing licence, for something like $100. This converted your sailing yacht into a "Commercial Fishing Vessel". We'd slap those numbers on either side of the wheelhouse, and call it a day.

Not only did this allow you to tie up to the ubiquitous government wharves for free, or next to nothing, but it also gave you the right to sink crab traps almost anywhere, except for a very few restricted areas, that were licensed to specific vessels. But crabs were so abundant in those days that those traps would be over-filled within 4-6 hours. So the protocol was that if you were still out on the water at dusk, it was perfectly acceptable to haul up an overfilled trap, take some of the smallest legal ones, and then discard the illegal ones, to create more room for the overnight feeding, and then rebait the trap. This would result in a massive increase in catch for the crabber.

They did all the hard-lifting work. We augmented this effort like copy editors while they were resting. When the crab boat would show up the next day to haul in their trap line, we'd zip out in the tender to provide support in the form of cold beers, and/or a couple of pre-rolls of BC bud.

Given that Dolphins have begun to start attacking and sinking boats in the Mediterranean, I, for one, won't be shocked to discover undersea grow-ops and craft breweries being run by our cetaceous Overlords.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:21 PM on November 17, 2023 [1 favorite]