Meet a Friendly Dolphin offshore Shimane

The home of myths Shimane is also a favorite home of marine life. A report from that part of Japan tells of a friendly dolphin offshore Aotani, a popular sea bathing site. This episode is all about this dolphin - how he(or she) has found his/her way there poking at swimmers at they pass by him or her (..let's it be her for the sake of convenience).

Well, she first appeared a day ago on May 7 beyond the sea bathing site. About 2 meters long, she is charmingly friendly - gladly accompanying swimmers and surfers as they move about. Today, a surfer reported she came close enough to poke at him and posed as if asking him to go on surfing.

The local fisheries experimental station says she is a bottle-nosed dolphin or Tursiops truncatus often spotted offshore Shimane but testifies that few wild dolphins behave friendly to man.

A college student who raced swimming with the dolphin recalls:

"Well, it was my first time watching a dolphin so close. She was about 2 meters long and a bit scary being closed in by. But then she came swimming near me and poked at me. I never knew a dolphin can be that friendly."

The port of Sakai is another point where dolphins are often spotted cruising by. At 9 a.m. yesterday, an angler spotted a family of dolphins, grampus or bottle-nosed, off the port.

The people of Shimane seem closely attached to dolphin. They boast of a huge aquarium with 10,000 of 400 species of marine organisms. The biggest attraction of all is the popular performance "Happy Bubbling" of a family of white dolphins.

In April, 2011, the aquarium built a "New White Dolphin Pool" for the baby white dolphin born in August, 2009.

As mentioned in the outset, this area abounds in myths since the time immemorial. Dolphin may be looked upon as a God's messenger. (Nathan Shiga)