Made of very strong and thick bone, dolphin snouts are biological battering rams. Dolphins will position themselves several yards under a shark and burst upwards jabbing their snout into the soft underbelly of the shark causing serious internal injuries.
Sharks prefer to avoid dolphins. Dolphins are mammals that live in pods and are very clever. They know how to protect themselves. When they see an aggressive shark, they immediately attack it with the whole pod.
Dolphins use their strong snouts as a powerful weapon to ram sharks, targeting their soft underbellies and gills to cause injuries. Sharks pose less of a threat to larger members of the dolphin family. Indeed, orcas are the top predator in the ocean and small sharks are a target for some populations.
In reality, dolphins have saved humans on many occasions. In two (sort of) similar incidents, one in 2004 and one in 2007, pods of dolphins circled imperiled surfers for over thirty minutes in order to ward off aggressive great white sharks.
A shark would win in a fight against a dolphin. They are faster, larger, and more attuned to predation than others. Furthermore, their mouths are actually large enough to bite down on a dolphin and deal fatal damage.
Even contact with dolphins outside of the water can result in bite injuries, as the many incidents of children being bitten during feeding interactions demonstrate. The venues know about the risks humans face when interacting with dolphins.
Dolphins' biggest advantage over sharks' strength is their intelligence. Using echolocation, Dolphins can quickly navigate through water to avoid or attack sharks.
Both humans and dolphins are mammals. Although sea water acts as an effective disinfectant, interaction with wild dolphins may result in disease transfer. These may present serious health threats to dolphins and humans alike. Finally, swimming with dolphins represents harassment – you do not want to get a fine.
While dolphins and sharks generally swim side by side "minding their own business," dolphins occasionally antagonize sharks when they feel threatened, Kajiura said. These more aggressive dolphins will ram sharks with their noses, or slam into them with the whole force of their bodies.
Unlike the lone sociable dolphins, they only seem interested in us because they receive free food. Visitors regularly report curious and amiable interactions with them.
This myth is often associated with a shark safety tip: “If you see dolphins, it's safe to swim there because their presence scares away sharks.” This is simply not correct. In fact, sharks and dolphins are often found near each other for a simple reason—they eat the same food, and both go where the food is.
In the sea, their only enemy is the shark, but when in groups, dolphins are not afraid of sharks, and will torment and often kill a solitary shark. Dolphins are amazingly agile and have athletic, muscular bodies that allow them to circle around a shark, dizzying and confusing it.
Dolphins saving people
No one knows why, but dolphins have been saving people for thousands of years. Dating back to Ancient Greece, there are dozens of claims of dolphins rescuing people from sharks, helping drowning sailors, and guiding boats through rough waters.
Sharks are often viewed as one of the ocean's top apex predators, but despite this rather prestigious classification, there's one marine animal that most sharks prefer to avoid crossing paths with entirely: the bottlenose dolphin.
Despite the old saying that aiming for the snout is the best strategy, a shark's most sensitive areas are really its eyes and its gills. Aiming for the nose, which is not known to be a weak spot, is generally considered a bad idea. "If you miss the snout its mouth is unfortunately very close by," said R.
This is dependent on the environment and species of shark or dolphin. Sharks and dolphins share the same food source, so they're likely to be in the same area at the same time in hopes of catching a meal. Dolphins may keep their distance from sharks – especially larger ones – but they still might share the same space.
Even though this is a natural reaction from the dolphin to protect itself and its offspring or family, they aren't considered an actual predator of a shark. They only attack sharks when there's a threat imminent. Dolphins are not known to seek out a shark simply to kill it. There will always be a purpose.
Slowly back away
Try not to thrash and splash around as you gradually swim backwards toward shore. "You must try and keep the animal in sight and very slowly and gently try and swim backwards and get into shallow water. Again, you've got to be careful -- large sharks can attack in very shallow depths."
Dolphins also have the advantage of speed as they can swim faster than most shark species. Of course, the biggest advantage dolphins have over sharks is intelligence, especially through echolocation (when dolphins send sound waves through the ocean).
Never touch or pet dolphins, even if they come close enough to touch. Use binoculars to watch dolphins from a safe distance in their natural habitat instead.
Although dolphins may seem curious, many of their behaviors are often misinterpreted as “friendly” when they actually are, in fact, signs of disturbance or aggression. If a dolphin approaches you in the water, do not engage, pursue, or otherwise interact with the dolphin, and take immediate steps to move away.
It is sensationalized information that the animals become aggressive towards pregnant individuals - it is simply untrue. Dolphins' echolocation gives them the ability to detect if a woman is pregnant in the water, and the ability to see the baby and heartbeat.
It's estimated that dolphins have an IQ of around 45, this makes them one of the smartest animals in the world, and probably the smartest animal in the ocean. It's estimated that the dolphin's brain size is almost five times bigger than is usual for a creature of their size.
In fact, two of the smartest ocean mammals are a big part of the Jervis Bay Wild experience: dolphins & whales. Researchers from the University of Adelaide have even suggested that, with their complex brains, cetaceans (dolphins and whales) are even more intelligent than humans.
Humans have the highest EQ at 7.4, but bottlenose dolphins have EQs of 5.3, significantly higher than all other animals.