News

In view of the conviction of two local men who 'harassed ' Dave the Dolphin, readers may like to read the points raised in Tim Dowling's 'Questions, Questions' section of the Guardian published today.

'We know it's possible, at least in a legal sense. This week two men, Michael Jukes and Daniel Buck, were sentenced to 120 hours of community service after becoming the first people in the UK to be convicted of "recklessly disturbing" a dolphin under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

In a night of heavy drinking last June, Jukes and Buck decided to go for a swim off Folkestone at 5am, when they were approached by a local dolphin known as Dave (even though it's female).

They touched the dolphin. They put their arms round it. At one point one of them grabbed Dave's fin and was pulled along for a bit, apparently while shouting: "People pay hundreds of pounds to do this in Florida and I'm doing it in Folkestone!" When people called police, it was because of the noise.

So is this really harassment? The question arises as to who has more business being in the sea off Folkestone at 5am, a dolphin or two drunks. If the former is more tourist-friendly, the latter is many hundreds of times more likely.

It isn't natural for Dave to be hanging around in shallow water and cavorting with humans, and one can only presume that if she wasn't enjoying herself she would leave, or drown the offending swimmers. This was essentially the argument of one expert witness at the trial, who said: "As long as they are enjoying company they stay, but the minute they get distressed they go." Unfortunately for Jukes and Buck, four other experts disagreed and said a DVD of the incident clearly showed the animal was under stress.

People had been swimming with the dolphin for more than a year, against the advice of marine biologists and the police, who believed Dave could potentially be dangerous. But this conviction makes it effectively illegal to swim with a dolphin under any circumstances, even if the dolphin is harassing you.

Dave hasn't been seen since October, when she lost part of her tail to a boat propeller. Perhaps human company has finally delighted her enough.'