The GoPro sports camera has filmed almost everything. It’s been in space, in a volcano, and now it’s filmed a selfie of an artificial dolphin fishing in the depths of Sandiego Bay. It is quite a unique video, mainly because no one has ever made a video like this that would include sound.
And how did the GoPro get on the back of an intelligent and playful cetacean? A group of scientists from California armed six bottlenose dolphins with them, and the research, which resulted in a comprehensive article in addition to the video, was paid for by the US Navy.
An excited dolphin squeals with delight when it catches a fish in the depths:
Incidentally, although the dolphin in the video is as happy as any teenager, in reality, the research involved more middle-aged cetaceans; four females and two males ranging in age from 5-42 years.
While freely swimming in San Diego Bay, one dolphin caught 69 resident fish, 64 demersal, 5 near surface, while the other caught 40, 36 demersal and 4 near the surface. Two other dolphins were observed capturing 135 live native fish in a sea water pool. Two additional dolphins were observed feeding opportunistically during open water sessions in the Pacific Ocean. Notably, one of these dolphins was observed to consume 8 yellow-bellied sea snakes (Hydrophis platurus)
GoPro and harnesses were not a problem for them, as in all cases these were dolphins that know humans intimately and have lived most of their lives in captivity. One of them – a 15-year-old cetacean named “Z” – then serves directly in NAVY, as he is a product of the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP).
