Feb 08 2008
Scared by a dolphin. The Norwegian Flipper.
One day in 2001 I was out fishing in my small boat. Suddenly I heard a strange sound. I thought it came from the outboard motor. I sat only 20 cm. from the motor. I looked at it, but I could not see any smoke or signs of problems.
Then I heard it again – the same loud, whistling sound – almost like a fart. I turned around and my eyes fell on something big rising from the water one meter behind me. The thing was moving, and I remember that my heart almost stopped for a second. Then I understood what it was. It was the bottlenose dolphin (Flipper) that had been visiting the area for a couple of years.
Flipper was 3,5 meters long and on the photo above he was so close that I had to stand up and move forwards in the boat in order to see the whole dolphin in the camera lens. Later that summer I saw Flipper several times.
Below you can see Flipper and a local fisherman in the harbor in 2002. It was then obvious that Flipper had been hit by a propeller. He had big scares on his head/neck. He had become thinner and he was not as lively as he used to be. This was the last time I saw him.
