Joshua Parfitt
A MASSIVE influx of dolphins off the Costa Blanca coast could be a hangover from storm Gloria.
Fisherman Amadeu Ros believes the sharp rise of visiting Bottlenose pods is due to the amount of offshore fish cages breaking open during the recent storm.
The captain of the Cap Prim Segon boat explained that this had led to thousands of fish swimming into the shallow waters off Javea, in particular.
“Our seas are full of dorada [gilt-head bream] and corvina [croaker] from these cages, providing an easy catch for the dolphins,” he said.
Javea-based financial advisor Sam Kelly meanwhile, filmed the ‘biggest’ dolphin pod he’d ever seen as they swam around his boat off Javea’s Arenal.
“I spotted them off my balcony and ran down to the boat, you wouldn’t believe it,” Kelly, from Chorus Financial, told the Olive Press.
He said there were over 50 dolphins ‘well within sight of the beach’ and they hung around for ‘over an hour’.
The Cabo San Antonio headland between Javea and Denia is well known as the best place in the Valencian Community to see bottlenose dolphins and fin whales.
And according to the tourist arm of the Generalitat Valenciana, each year the sightings are increasing.
The bottlenose dolphin can swim at 35 km/h and swim in big groups – whereas the fin whale is the second-largest species in the world, weighing in at up to 80 tons.
According to the Foundation for Advice and Action in the Defence of Animals (FAADA), viewers should avoid direct contact with dolphins and avoid feeding them.
