Unexpected visitors
Grampus dolphins found off coast of Haifa; not usually found in Mediterranean
HAIFA - Researchers from the Center for the Study of Sea Mammals have discovered a pod of dolphins about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) off the coast of Haifa.
Grampus dolphins are rarely seen in this area. The pod is also one of the largest ever seen in Mediterranean waters.
Unexpected voices
The dolphins were first sighted early Friday by sailors about 30-40 nautical miles off the coast of Israel. The crew had been using underwater equipment to measure the whales’ sounds was surveying whales in the Mediterranean. They heard loud, unexpected “voices” which turned out to be grampus dolphins.
Ron Yaffe, director of volunteers for the Center for the Study of Sea Mammals, said grampus dolphins are different than local species, mainly in their physical build. For instance, they have a round nose, instead of the bottle-shaped one found in most species of dolphin.
Yaffe said it is not unheard of to find grampus dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea, but it is rare.
“These dolphins are not usually found near the Israeli coast,” he said. “We have seen them before, but to my great sorrow, but they washed up on Israeli beaches dead. All we could do with them was dissect them.”
