Sharks and Dolphins, Do They Get Along?
Hello everyone! Today on July 21st, 2022, Stockton University Tropical Ospreys went shark-tagging with Nova Southern University. It was an awesome opportunity. Personally, I feel like I have learned so much from this experience and I hope a lot of my classmates did as well. First off, I learned that sharks are not the big scary monsters humans portray them to be. Something that hit home to me though was when we were setting one of the lines someone had mentioned that there were dolphins in the area. They also said that the sharks had left the area because of the dolphins. While interning at the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center dolphin and shark relationships are talked about often. In this blog, we are going to find the underlying cause of the situation, sharks and dolphins friends or enemies of the sea?
We went shark-tagging in Fort Lauderdale today and we had 2 Nurse Sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum). For the sake of this blog, we are going to be talking about Atlantic Bottle Nose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Large species of sharks have been known to prey on dolphins, especially young calves, and sick adult dolphins because they are the weakest. In some parts of the world like the Sarasota Florida dolphin community and Australia, sharks are a major predator to dolphins. In this area, dolphins have been found bearing scars from shark bites. Dolphins have been found to protect their pods from shark attacks by using their strong snouts as a weapon to ram sharks. Dolphins will target the sharks' soft underbellies and gills to cause injuries. Dolphins can protect the weakest members of their pods and are highly intelligent in doing so. Dolphins have a huge advantage over sharks because they travel in pods. Dolphins are highly intelligent animals and have often been seen antagonizing sharks. Sharks pose a lower threat because they often travel alone, and dolphins have safety in numbers. Side note, Orca Whales have been seen attacking and consuming sharks and are known as top predators. In the natural world, it really is the survival of the fittest and these marine animals will do whatever it takes to survive. Click Here for More
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Atlantic Ocean in Fort Lauderdale. Photo by Mackenzie Briggs.
Sharks are an important marine species even if people view them as scary. Sharks keep the ocean ecosystems in balance. For example, sharks limit the amount of prey they eat which in return affects the prey of other animals in the food web. They indirectly affect these levels, and sharks help maintain a healthy food web structure. Click Here to Learn More
I never really thought about whether or not sharks and dolphins get along and I didn't realize how big of a predator a shark can be to a dolphin, though it makes sense. I find it interesting that sharks had left this area due to the dolphins. If the dolphins were the predators I would understand this, but since it's the other way around, I feel like there might be another reason. Maybe the dolphins were eating too much of other species that the sharks also prey on so the sharks left to find an area with more food availability. I also think it's pretty funny that dolphins have been seen "antagonizing sharks" and would love to know what exactly they do to antagonize them!
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