TWO DOLPHINS??

[California Girl]

Ok, so I'm going through all my pictures, getting ready to upload them to my online album, when I did a double-take on that dolphin's tail and now I'm wondering if we had TWO dolphins out there that day! Take a look at the two pictures below and tell me if you think these are two different fish? (I know a dolphin's not a "fish"). The tails look different to me. What do you think?

[cat]

they don't look the same!

[cypressgirl]

Unless thay can contort their tail, it looks like a different animal to me.

[ScubaGirl]

Looks different to me too.....and I was there! Strange we wouldn't see both at the same time??????

Sydney

[mbw1024]

not sure, maybe it's the angle. but I have to tell you I had a dream last night that I was at the lake in Maine that we go to and I was swimming with 3 dolphins! LOL .... I gotta get off this board!

MB

[Xislandgirl]

I think that Splash had a baby last year, so that would make sense.

[kirk]

the tail change shape.
"As the tail oscillates up and down, it provides lift that is channeled into forward movement, giving the animal thrust. Fish has placed dolphin flukes through CT scans to examine their shape as they bend. He has found that their geometry can change into an arch. The curve is crucial for one tiny moment of every stroke the dolphin makes—the exact moment it switches between up and down. Were the tail perfectly flat, it would lie in a plane with water flowing over it, and for an instant it would not provide any lift. When the tail arches, it probably never lies perfectly flat, and the dolphin doesn't lose thrust."

[FlaGeorge]

Margo
Looks like for sure you had two different Dolphins that day. The second picture looks to be an Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin. The first picture I’m not sure of. I have never seen a dolphin with that type of crescent tail. I’ll see if I can find one on the web – you got me wondering.

[b-as-u-r]

They definitely look different to me. OMG, that must have been so exciting. Ali~

[Jerseyboy]

the tail change shape.
"As the tail oscillates up and down, it provides lift that is channeled into forward movement, giving the animal thrust. Fish has placed dolphin flukes through CT scans to examine their shape as they bend. He has found that their geometry can change into an arch. The curve is crucial for one tiny moment of every stroke the dolphin makes—the exact moment it switches between up and down. Were the tail perfectly flat, it would lie in a plane with water flowing over it, and for an instant it would not provide any lift. When the tail arches, it probably never lies perfectly flat, and the dolphin doesn't lose thrust."

Very interesting. As a geeky engineer who's studied aerodynamics and fluid dynamics, it makes sense that the tail would change shape like aileron/elevators do on airplanes.

Who is "fish"?

[California Girl]

The tail changing shape would explain it. But I also know that Splash had a baby and I thought about that, too. The weird thing was that if both Splash & Squirt (?) were out there, why did we only see one at a time?

[FlaGeorge]

There are dolphins that have that crescent tail, but they are mostly in the Pacific. I still think that they are two different dolphins.

[California Girl]

I just Googled dolphin tails and found the article that Kirk posted. "Fish" is Biolgist Frank Fish (great name for a marine biologist, don't you think?!) Here's the link, but I don't have any more time right now to research further.

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/feb/physics-swimming

Keep looking FlaGeorge!

I wonder sometimes if maybe Splash is a trained dolphin that got lost from some "swim with the dolphins" place or an aquarium during Hurricane Katrina, or something like that. Maybe she has a pod that she associates with (how else would she have a baby?). I'd love to know!

[obsessedmuch]

I'm sure it's entirely possible that there were two playing with you guys. It seems as though that's there "style." If there were really two, twice as cool! Good job on capturing the pictures!

[Jerseyboy]

"Fish" is Biolgist Frank Fish (great name for a marine biologist, don't you think?!)

Thanks, CG. So the marine biologist's name is actually Fish?? That's incredible! I'm sure he's heard all the jokes before just like the library investigator named Bookman (ref. Seinfeld)