Date: Thu, 30 May, 1996
Two dolphins came to vote in Haifa Harbor, Israel

Wednesday morning 5/29/96 at 5:15 a.m. two dolphins, an adult and a juvenile (Tursiops truncatus), entered Haifa port, the second largest and busiest port in Israel. They were observed by the tower guards. They came all the way into the harbor, to its end, in front of the marine police buildings. These guards notified Nimrod Otets, a naval ranger for the Ministry of Environment about their presence. By 7 a.m., IMMRAC (Israel Marine Mammal Research & Assistance Center) volunteers were notified and on the site: Dr. Dan Kerem, Mira Roditi, Aharon Koltuv, and Oz Goffman. We identified the species of the two dolphins and observed their swimming formation (always as a pair). Most of the time, they were submerged. The visibility in the water is less than 50 cm and the depth in this region is 7-8 meters.

Because of a national holiday due to Israel's elections, boat traffic in the port was light. At 7:40 a.m. we started taking observations on the behavior of the dolphins, their submerged time, location, etc. The dolphins seemed to be in healthy condition. Perhaps they were a mother and an older calf, but we were unable to determine the genders of the dolphins. We studied the harbor area and decided not try to capture them or stress them in any way. We recalled how Dr. David Ben had herded killer whales out of an estuary (IMMATA conference, 1994), by using an acoustic wall to push the dolphins forward.

We made the first attempt to do this at 9:02 a.m. with two Boston whaler like fiberglass boats, one zodiac, and one windsurf board (no sail), using metal clankers (made by the marine police on the spot for us). We only were able to drive them up halfway in the harbor, before it expanded. The dolphins dove under us and returned to the inner harbor at 9:49 a.m.

At 10 a.m. we decided to stop the herding attempts but Orit Barnare and Hadass Rapport, Kari Lavalli, Moti Mendelson continued observations on the dolphin's behavior. At 11:57 the dolphins attempted to leave the inner harbor but turned back. We followed them in a boat at some distance. At 12:40 p.m. we decided to add more windsurf boards to our acoustic line, and by 1:45 p.m. 2 additional volunteers joined us to man the surf boards (Amir Yurman, Amir from Sofay Yam, in additional to Mira and Aharon). We devised a plan of action, keeping in mind the importance of maintaining a straight line to herd the dolphins and making continuous noise.

At 2 p.m. we made a second attempt at the acoustical herding line again with the two Boston whaler like boats and the 4 surf boards. We started making noise from the very beginning. It took 1.5 hours to herd the dolphins out of the harbor.

Years ago there was a similar incident. Some of the dolphins left the harbor on their own after three to five days, while others were entangled and injured. We may have been successful because of our use of small boats, surf boards, and noise makers.

IMMRAC would like to thank the following authorities for their help and cooperation:

Ministry of the Environment
Tel Aviv University Dept. of Zoology
Port Authority
Haifa Harbor Tug Boat Operaters
Israel's Navy
Safay Yamv
the volunteers of IMMRAC

If anyone else has had similar experiences with dolphins trapped in busy harbors (where they are not commonly found), please let us know and send us your case reports to:

Oz Goffman, IMMRAC
University of Haifa
Recanati Center for Maritime Studies
Mt. Carmel, Haifa, 31905 Israel
Oz Goffman < RHSS101@UVM.HAIFA.AC.IL>


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