Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Another great newspaper story

Cuddly, friendly, laughing-face dolphins. Everybody's favourite.

I like Jean Floch though. A grumpy independent kind of in-yer-face dolphin. Fallen out with his friends so he's having a bad few days, and isn't afraid to show it.

I found this in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Dolphin runs amok off French coast

August 30, 2006 - 7:35pm

An enraged dolphin has been terrorising the French Atlantic coast for several weeks, attacking boats and knocking fishermen into the sea.

"He's like a mad dog," said Hneri Le Lay, president of the association of fishermen and yachtsmen of the port of Brezellec, in Brittany. "He has caused at least 1,500 euros ($2,530) worth of damage in the past few weeks."

The dolphin, named Jean Floch, has destroyed rowboats, overturned open boats, flooded engines and twisted mooring lines.

Two fishermen were knocked into the sea after the dolphin overturned their boat.

Jean Floch has been a popular and familiar sight along the coast of Brittany since 2002.
But experts say that he must have been excluded from his group recently to have turned so violent.

According to Sami Hassani, of the Oceanapolis Department of Sea Mammals, "because of their dominant personalities and their sexual maturity, males could become dangerous."

DPA

2 comments:

nzm said...

Maybe the humans stole all his fish?

:-)

halfmanhalfbeer said...

Poor Flipper! I am amazed though that the French haven't caught him and served him up with a little salsa verde!

They must be getting soft.

HMHB