There have been stories or tales about sharks fearing dolphins. There were also those that were told on how intelligent dolphins are and how they saved people in distress in highseas. The Discovery Channel's series of Mythbusters came up with a way to prove or disprove that sharks fear dolphins. It was an interesting show on how they made the tests. The mythbusters know that sharks attack surfers because they seem to be seals from the point of view of sharks from under. Also, they are aware that sharks attack from under or beneath their prey. The mythbusters did several tests using a dolphin dummy that looks so real. For the seal, they just made a cutout from a flat material that looks like a seal and floats as they pull it from their boat.

The experiment or tests were made in open seas where sharks are frequently preying on seals. The show hosts were good in timing where they would cast the dummy seal. It did not take long before a shark attacked the dummy. If I remember right, they also used bait after that just to prove that sharks would really go for it.

The most interesting part was when they decided to deploy the dummy dolphin close to the dummy seal, both being tugged by their boat. This one took a longer time to wait for shark action. Not really that long, they spotted a shark that got interested in the dummy seal. In the first tests, without the dummy dolphin, the sharks would not hesitate taking the dummy seal into their jaws. But with the dummy dolphin, the shark just circled and nudged the dummy seal! Did the shark really fear the dolphin or what? The shark did not bother attacking the dummy seal. Then, the mythbusters took out the dummy dolphin to make sure. Unhesitatingly, the shark attacked the dummy seal!

On a final test, the mythbusters towed bait with the dummy dolphin alongside. The results were the same. The shark did not take the bait in its jaws! The conclusion that was drawn here is that, sharks do not fear dolphins because they still came close to the bait and dummy seal. Dolphins proved to be a deterrent from shark attacks. Maybe, this shows that dolphins would protect prey if ever sharks attacked them. It means that sharks fear that dolphins would come to the rescue of prey that are being attacked by them. Sharks do not fear being in the same area with dolphins as long as they do not attack any prey. Technorati Profile