A man claims he is “lucky to be alive,” after a rowdy dolphin stalking the waters off the coast of Tsuruga in central Japan launched another attack on a swimmer.
Takuma Goto claims he was in the water with a friend earlier this summer when they were attacked by a lone dolphin.
New footage shows the dolphin stalking Goto before bumping into him. The man tries to swim away, while bystanders can be heard shouting. Another swimmer nearby propels a paddle board towards Goto in a bid to help him.
Experts believe it’s the same “sexually frustrated” mammal that’s behind some 15 other attacks on swimmers in Fukui this summer, reports The Telegraph, up from five incidents last summer and one in 2022.
Goto was swimming at Crystal Beach when he claims the mammal first attacked his friend. Then, the man claims the dolphin raised it head from the water before turning its attack on him.
“I knew it was not a shark, but it came straight at me,” the 23-year-old told the publication.
“It attacked me and bit me … it kept attacking me and I genuinely believed that I was going to die. I was most worried that I was going to be dragged under the water and further out to sea.”
Once on shore, after being helped by a nearby surfer, Goto said he sustained some gruesome injuries.
“The insides of my finger were popping out,” he said, adding the injury resulted in five stitches, as well as a bite to his left wrist and forearm and his right hand and upper arm.
Last month, experts weighed in on why they believe dolphins are engaging in the attacks.
Speaking to the BBC, Biologist Dr. Simon Allen believes the culprit of such attacks would likely be a single male bottlenose dolphin — who has likely been kicked out of its pod “and be seeking alternative companionship.”
“Bottlenose dolphins are highly social animals and this sociality can be expressed in very physical ways,” Dr. Allen, who is also a principal investigator with the Shark Bay Dolphin Research project, told the publication.
“Just as in humans and other social animals, hormonal fluctuations, sexual frustration or the desire to dominate might drive the dolphin to injuring the people it interacts with. Since they are such powerful animals, this can lead to serious injury in humans.”
Mari Kobayashi, head of the marine biology laboratory at Tokyo University of Agriculture, said the attacks are likely from the same lone dolphin who is likely biting to try and communicate.
“It is believed to be a male Indo-Pacific bottlenose and we know that males sometimes communicate by biting each other, so it may be that it is trying to do this with humans,” she said.
“Also, this is a species that usually lives in groups, so it is possible it is lonely”.
Last year saw a string of incidents involving a dolphin in the town of Mihama, Fukui prefecture in Japan.
Four swimmers were injured by a dolphin, including one man in his 60s, who suffered broken ribs and bites to his hands. Another man, in his 40s, sustained arm bites in a separate incident at the same popular beach on the same morning. Two more people were injured, presumably by the same dolphin, later in the day.