Swimmers are warned to be on guard after dolphin attack

Dusty the dolphin has struck again. A video posted online shows the bottlenose dolphin ‘attacking’ a girl as she bathes in shallow waters off the idyllic beach on Inis Óirr.

It is the latest of more than a dozen reports of the wild female dolphin ramming humans since the Summer tourist season began.
The girl is seen paddling waist deep in the clear blue waters off the smallest, southernmost Aran Island.

And all of a sudden – like a scene from the movie Jaws about shark attacks – the mammal darts through the water and appears to bump the girl head-on.

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She screams as she is struck, and falls in the water, before getting up again and making her escape to the sandy area. Onlookers are heard urging her to ‘get out of the water’.

As she makes it back to dry land, Dusty darts away again, back out to sea, following the attack.

It is the latest in a series of reports of the dolphin hitting humans near Inis Óirr. The attacks, head-on ramming, are seemingly unprovoked and random.

Just last Monday, scores of people, including children, ran screaming from the water after Dusty arrived and was poised for an attack.

Dusty began ‘tail slapping’ which is the trademark warning that she is angry and about to attack, and cleared the water.

The rammings, which began last year when Dusty took up residence off Inis Óirr, have prompted locals into taking action to alert the public about the dangers.

Dr Simon Berrow, chief science officer with Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, said the idea a dolphin would attack sounds funny but it is very serious.
“It is only a matter of time before someone is hospitalised, or worse,” said Dr Berrow.

“If she rams you with full force you’d feel it – broken bones, punctured lungs and that’s adults. You can imagine what would happen to a child.”