3 Potential Reasons Why Dolphins Are Attacking People In Japan

If you've been watching the news recently, you may have noticed a strange story coming out of Japan. Around a week ago on a small beach in central Japan, a small group of dolphins started attacking humans. These attacks turned out to be quite ugly, and although the idea of a dolphin attacking a human may be shocking to some, dolphin attacks on humans aren't unheard of. There are often many complicated reasons as to why dolphins attack humans, and I will be going through just a few of them today, as I will be going through three potential reasons why dolphins are attacking humans. To start off with, I think it's a good idea to look at the recent attacks in more detail and find out exactly what went on. The attacks all happened on a small beach in Fukui prefecture, and four people were attacked on the same day. A man in his 60's suffered broken ribs and bites to his hands, and another man in his 40's sustained bites as well. These two attacks happened in the morning, and two more people were injured later that day, but their injuries were not as serious. There have been six attacks such as this in Fukui prefecture this year, and it really does look like these attacks are on the rise. Japan isn't the only place where attacks like this have happened, as two women were attacked by a dolphin off the coast of Ireland in 2013, and one of these women sustained a broken rib, compressed vertebrae and lung damage. There was one famous killer dolphin that lived off the coast of Sao Paulo, and this dolphin went by the name of Teau. This dolphin would often interact with humans and swim around them, but people started to take advantage of him. Groups of people would often crowd around him, and in some cases people would try and grab hold of him. Some people took this harassment to a whole new level, and started trying to put ice cream in his blowhole and pour beer into his mouth. It's easy to understand why this Brazilian dolphin would hate humans, and he later went on to kill a swimmer by ramming them while they were swimming. These are just a few of the famous cases where dolphins have attacked humans, but really there are plenty more. This aggression goes against most people's perception of dolphins, as they're often seen as very playful and friendly creatures. There are countless stories of dolphins saving people in the wild, either by warning them of sharks in the area, helping drowning sailors, or guiding boats through rough waters. Although the majority of these stories are untrue, there have been a few cases where wild dolphins seem to have helped humans. Unfortunately they don't do this out of compassion or love, but it seems as though they are just curious. Dolphins are of course very intelligent creatures, and they're often fascinated by things they come across in their environment. They are known to play with stones and man-made objects, and they'll even play with puffer fish to get high. If a dolphin were to come across a human in the wild, it would probably think that we look very strange and very out of place. This is often why dolphins are very fascinated with humans, but in most cases they are also cautious. This behaviour is mirrored with other members of the oceanic dolphin family, such as the orcas. Both these creatures show a lot of interest in humans, but they very rarely attack or touch us. For the orca, famously this behaviour changes when they're kept in captivity, and it's the same story for dolphins too. In April of last year, a captive dolphin tried to drown its trainer, and captive dolphins are also known to become hostile towards humans, and in some cases they are even sexually aggressive towards humans. These stories give us a better understanding of dolphins, and although they are relatively friendly, if you take advantage or mistreat a dolphin, they can turn deadly. To get back to our earlier story, I think that there are three main potential reasons why dolphins are attacking humans in Japan, and the first potential reason is that they are just playing. As I've already covered, dolphins are very playful and intelligent creatures, and they will even take advantage of other animals to have fun. As I've already covered, they will play with puffer fish to get high off of their toxins, and in more sinister cases, they will kill animals to have fun. All dolphins are whales, and one member of the oceanic dolphin family that's known for being quite cruel is the orca. Orcas are known for killing animals just for the fun of it and not eating them, and they're even known to launch their bodies into the air. Strangely, this behaviour can also be seen in some of the smaller members of the oceanic dolphin family, such as the bottlenose dolphins. These dolphins are known to kill porpoises and launch their bodies into the air, and after this, they leave their bodies to rot without eating them. It's possible that some dolphins feel that there is no reason to be cautious around humans, and this could explain why they've started ramming people and knocking them over. There is some footage of dolphins doing this in the wild, and if you were a dolphin, it does look quite fun. Although this potential reason would clear up most of the attacks, it doesn't explain why they're biting people. This biting behaviour seems way more aggressive, and it looks like they are intentionally trying to hurt people. This brings us onto our next potential reason, which is that dolphins hate humans. Unsurprisingly, dolphins have a lot of reasons to hate humans, and this is mainly due down to the way that we treat the planet and the way that we treat dolphins directly. At least 300,000 whales and dolphins are killed by fishing gear each year, and this gear also limits the amount of prey available. If dolphins were able to link fishing nets to humans, it would be easy to understand why they would attack humans, and this could be why they were attacking people in Japan. The fact that these attacks happened in Japan also adds to the hatred argument, as Japan still kills thousands of dolphins each year. There's a small fishing village in South Central Japan, and every year hundreds of dolphins are killed here. It was featured in the 2009 documentary The Cove, and this documentary outlined the cruelty of the practice. Hundreds of cetaceans are driven into a small bay, and in this bay they are either captured or they're killed for their meat. This brutal hunt turns the ocean red, and many have called for it to be banned. Similar hunts happen in the Faroe Islands, and there's simply no place for them in the modern day. If any dolphins were in and around the area while these hunts were occurring, it's easy to understand why they would hate humans, and potentially go on to attack them. As I mentioned earlier on in the video, the killer dolphin had a similar story, as it was attacked and abused by humans, and then went on to kill one. The killer dolphin's story strongly supports this potential reason, but now we'll move on to our final potential reason. Dolphins are attacking humans to protect their territory. Even though we view beaches as a place to relax or have fun, some animals view them as hunting grounds. Dolphins often hunt for fish on beaches, and humans can easily get in their way. Our bodies can offer protection from the dolphins, and activities such as surfing and jet skiing can annoy them. This can lead to the dolphins becoming very frustrated with humans, and the best way to get rid of us would be to ram us or bite us. This would explain why the dolphins are so aggressive on some beaches, as they are simply trying to hunt and humans are getting in the way. A situation isn't helped by fishermen putting in nets in shallow waters, and as I've already covered, this can be deadly for the dolphins. For now, we don't know the reason for certain, but hopefully in the coming years we will come up with a solution. If we treat our oceans with more respect, we will have less problems like these, and maybe the dolphin attacks would stop altogether. Let me know your thoughts and opinions down in the comments below, and if you that there's a potential reason that I've missed out, then also let me know in the comments below. Thank you for watching, I hope you found it interesting and if you liked it, please leave a like and subscribe if you want to see more videos like these, but until next time, goodbye.