Boaters: steer clear of dolphins
betsyCLAYTON boatingbybetsy@yahoo.com

A dad strolls along the Caloosahatchee, holding the hand of his toddler son. Fall sunshine casts sequins across the water. Dolphins surface - a female bottlenose and her calf. They chase fish.

Father and son are delighted. The animals are only 10 feet from them off a seawall near the mouth of the river. It's moment together sealed in time, as if the two are in a tropical version of a snow globe with those dolphin doing a wild show.

What a memory for the sun-kissed childhood of the boy.

Then the father hears a boat motor. He sees the approaching vessel. The driver is focusing on the dolphins. The driver points the bow at the animals. Then he plows over them as they scurry down away.

The moment is tarnished.

"There were two older couples in the boat. I don't think they meant any harm. They just wanted the dolphins to jump in their wake," said Mike Hammond of Fort Myers, who wishes his son, Benjamin, didn't have to watch the scene unfold the way it did.

"It seems like some people need a reminder."

Indeed.

As snowbirds return, tourists come back and new residents keep moving here, it's good for boaters and outdoors lovers who know better to spread the word about marine mammal observation, etiquette and laws.

COURTESY PHOTO Bottlenose dolphins in Southwest Florida present top photo opportunities but: boaters beware.

Boaters sometimes plow into pods, thinking the dolphins want to play. Don't do it. They'll find your wake if they want to. Better idea: Slow down the boat off plane and keep space between you and the dolphins.

Back off if the dolphins start chuffing - strongly exhaling air from their blowholes - or slapping their tails on the water. Those are signs of agitation.

Unfortunately some boaters don't know and think these are signs the dolphins want to play.

Unfortunately some boaters don't even give the dolphins time to show signs because they're busy plowing over the top of them.

It's understandable that people would want to interact with the mammals, which always seem to have an apparent grin.

The bottlenose in these parts present photo opportunities better than those found on Animal Planet. They jump wakes, toss stingrays like Frisbees, toy with sticks or seagrass strands and chow down. Dolphins eat more than 15 pounds of fish a day.

They mate here, give birth here, grow up here, and keep eating all the way through it. Sometimes it's to the angst of local anglers, who watch dolphin beg, scare off game, or attack recently released fish.

Longtime Southwest Florida Capt. Ralph Allen once told me, "It's our playground, but it's their place of business."

They do it like models of efficiency - quite a contrast to lumbering sea cows.

Which may make uninformed boaters more likely to drive over them, always assuming the dolphins will submerge and resurface safely.

Not so.

Dolphin mortality due to humans is studied constantly by scientists along the Gulf coast, from Mote Marine Laboratory to NOAA Fisheries Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

People just don't think about it.

That's what irked Hammond and would have irked me, had I been there, too.

"When the driver saw the two dolphins and headed right for them, it was very obvious Benjamin and I were quietly enjoying the dolphins, but he ran right over where they last submerged," he said. "When the dolphins ignored him, he turned around again and ran over the area they submerged a second time."

The inexperienced calf could have been injured or killed.

Then little Benjamin would have been seeing blood surface on that sparkling Caloosahatchee. And his dad would have been seeing red even more so than he already was as he watched the powerboat buzz away, leaving a sad memory in its wake.

- Betsy Clayton is a freelancer based on

Pine Island and also is Lee County Parks &

Recreation's waterways coordinator. Contact

her at boatingbybetsy@yahoo.com.

BOATING AROUND DOLPHINS

>>Bottlenose dolphins are vulnerable to boat collisions, and human feeding of and human disturbances such as people swimming with them and boaters plowing through water where they are surfacing. Other risk factors: pollution and habitat alteration.

>>It's against the law to feed or harass wild dolphins.

>>Observe them from a distance of at least 50 yards.

>>Treat them with respect and caution; dolphins will bite when they are angry, frustrated or afraid.