I was out on a steenbras hunt with Mark Jackson.

I had carefully tracked the weather and probable position of thermoclines was good as per my model. Alarm bells were ringing in my left brain claiming it’s time to go right now, the window of opportunity would soon close as there was a fresh westerly blowing that would essentially zero success if we waited a few more hours. No sooner had we entered the water and the click and squeak parade arrived. Bottlenose Dolphins.Delighted by their presence I sat silently on the bottom gazing at the mixed pod of juvenile and adult dolphins. I essentially wrote off getting a steenbras with these big predators cruising about. Especially after the recent newspaper article in which a paddle-skier claimed that a bottlenose dolphin had displayed a musselcracker it caught and seemingly offered the fish to him. 

Anyway, Mark was already pulling anchor as he saw no likelihood of getting success with the present company. I decided to try one last spot, the dolphins had just left and I checked my land marks and landed within a 2 m radius of where I wanted to be. I quietly settled on the bottom and gazed off to the east while partially tucked behind a hollow sandstone ridge under which was a small cave that sometimes produced tasslefish (baardman). Nothing doing – I could hear the outboard engine starting up in the distance as Mark prepared to pick me up. I decided to look for a tassle and pushed back on the sand and looked into the cave – what’s this?!

A large silver glow revealed a steenbras within – most unusual – the dolphins had spooked it and it took temporary refuge in the cave. I backed up the 1.1 m gun which was still pointing out over the ridge and managed to swiftly move back myself to get in a position to attempt a shot. The fish started to move but I was faster and lined the fish up with a very irregular angled shot. The shot was solid and I extracted the white steenbras – I was very surprised as these fish seldom enter caves. Mark was equally surprised at this success. I have seen more than my share of fine-sized white steenbras but only on one other occasion had I seen one in a cave – that was on the wreckage just north of the Queen Victoria’s wreck off North End, Port Elizabeth.

Anyway thanks to the dolphins on this day I got a really unexpected 16 kgs white steenbras. There is a picture of such a fish on my blog site at http://southafricaspearfishing.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-on-dolphins-spearo-assitants.html

Since you mainly see dolphins in the zoo or aquarium, it is not very likely that you will have one as a pet. There have been many famous dolphin names throughout history and in the movies. Flipper is the one that comes to mind from the television series. Other dolphins usually have place names attached to them because they always appear in the same places year after year. Some of these are:

 

- Dingle Dolphin – this is the dolphin that appears in the harbor of Dingle, Ireland. Some of the names people have given this dolphin are Fungie, Dorad, Tarquin, and Fungi.

 

- Dusty – this is the dolphin that has been a regular visitor to Doolin and Dereen, also in Ireland. It has been called by different names, such as Orb, Mushroom, Molly, Dolly and Fainne.

 

- Sandy – this dolphin likes the waters off the Aran Islands. It has been simply named Aran.

 

- Dony – this dolphin appears in the vicinity of the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland.

 

Many are wondering if the dolphins seem to be attracted by place names starting with the letter “D” because of the areas in which they seem to return to year after year.

 

When zoos or aquariums receive a new dolphin or one is born in captivity, they usually have a dolphin naming competition. In such a competition, people from all over submit a name for the dolphin either electronically or by mail. The staff or committee responsible for choosing a name will then sort through the extensive list of names they receive to decide on a suitable one. Quite often, they will simply make a random draw and use the name that is selected. Some of the commonly submitted names in such a competition Flipper always seems to find its way into such a naming competition, but other commonly submitted names include:

 

- Squeal

 

- Squeak

 

- Blue

 

- Splash

 

- Jumper

 

- Flippy

 

- Echo

 

- Freedom

 

Dolphins seem to choose their own names by their whistle. Experts who study dolphins have determined that each one has a distinctive whistle and those in captivity have a repertoire of whistles. They think that these whistles may actually be the way in which they call one another.

 

When you choose a name for a dolphin, it is important to know the kind of dolphin that it is so you can choose something that really suits. There are nine different kinds of dolphins:

 

- Bottlenose dolphin, which has a cut off face

 

- Striped dolphin, which is narrow and skyblue and white in color

 

- Risso’s dolphin, which is gray

 

- Dusky dolphin, which has dark beak

 

- Atlantic White Sided dolphin, which has a pointed beak

 

- White-beaked dolphin – aptly named because of its white beak

 

- Hourglass dolphin, which has a crossed beak

 

- Northern Right Whale dolphin, which is very smooth and found only in northern waters

 

- Peale’s Dolphin, which is generally found around Australia

 

When you do your research on the type of dolphin, then you may be able to come up with a suitable name.