Land of my flippers: Dolphins ‘whistle in Welsh’

DOLPHINS swimming off the coast of Wales have been found to have their own distinct ‘Welsh’ accent. The pods around Cardigan Bay were even found to speak faster than those in the rest of the world.

Experts on the BBC nature series Wonders of the Celtic Deep, which explores the west Wales coastline, made the discovery after a study of 240 bottlenose dolphins. They found their whistles had a unique regional signature made at a higher frequency than other pods around the British Isles. The show’s narrator Dame Sian Phillips, said: ‘Bottlenose dolphins are highly sociable, the group are in constant communication.

‘Each dolphin has its own unique signature whistle and the Cardigan Bay dolphins may have their very own dialect.

‘Their whistles are at a higher frequency than those recorded anywhere else in the world.’ Cardigan Bay is a designated a Special Area of Conservation home to Atlantic grey seals, the harbour porpoise and hundreds of bottlenose dolphins.

Sightseeing boat trips and wildlife tours are a major tourist attraction each year with holidaymakers hoping to catch a sight of the playful mammals flipping and splashing around in the Irish Sea.