Dolphin mystery in Craignure Bay

As I was leaving Craignure on the ferry to Oban recently, I spotted a lone common dolphin in the bay acting a little oddly, close to a fishing buoy.

I have worked with dolphins and had hundreds of encounters but I have never seen a common dolphin from the Oban ferry before, only bottle noses, and I have never seen a common dolphin alone, swimming round and round a buoy so I was concerned it could have been tangled up in something.

Because I was soon too far away raised the alarm to see if someone check that it was okay.

Thanks to Nick and Anna Bonetti help doing this.

Nancy Somerville, a local wildlife enthusiast from Craignure, also reported seeing it around a buoy as did a few others.

A storm came in and it was 24 hours before my mate Toby and I could get back out to check it.

We searched the coastline looking for it, thinking, from other reports, that it may be still mobile, dragging the buoy around with it but we eventually found it back in Craignure bay in exactly the same place I had seen it before.

I tried to find someone with a boat to get out to check on it but the storm was still blowing and no boats were in the water or handy.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue were contacted again but without confirmation that the dolphin was actually entangled could not send a team, understandably.

So, myself and friends set off on the third day to get out there to confirm this and get pictures.

Nicholas Waller suited up and set off in his kayak.

He returned to confirm there was a dolphin at the buoy and that it was, in his opinion, entangled.

It was swimming round and round the buoy no further than a few meters and he said the buoy was even submerging occasionally as if being pulled under by the dolphin.

A local fisherman called Alister turned up and agreed to take us out to have a closer look and possibly cut this animal free.

When we arrived, the dolphin was there and started to swim very close around the boat, frantically, leaping etc.

It was soon clear that it was not entangled as we had thought, but was certainly strangely obsessed with this one fishing float. to help, I else could

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The dolphin Daniel Brooks spotted acting oddly in Craignure Bay.

It also became clear that there were other common dolphins in the area. Presumably from the same pod that were hanging around unwilling to leave their pod member.

So, we left, very cold, wet, confused and curious with more questions than answers. Why was this dolphin obsessed with this buoy. Was there a dead animal caught in the gear below? Was this animal grieving or still trying to save a dead loved one? Or was it just sick in some way?

Some suggested it was feeding on small fish around the buoy but all in attendance thought that highly unlikely.

The next day I spoke with Darren Clark the local fisherman, as he was fishing this fleet of creels.

The dolphin was still there but there was nothing unusual in his gear when he hauled it. He also said he had never seen anything like it.

The dolphin was coming right up to them ‘as if trying to tell them something’. Maybe we will never know what it was about.

Huge thanks to all that got involved in this story: the ladies at the CalMac office and the info centre; Scallasdale Fish Farm; Inverlussa Mussels; Alister the friendly fisherman; Nancy Somerville a local nature lover; Nick for his brave kayak trip in nasty weather; and friends Toby and Derek for their continued perseverance in trying to help.

A true community effort.

The dolphin is still there at the time of writing and will be kept an eye on. A classic wildlife mystery.