Striped Dolphin

Scientific name: Stenella Coeruleoabla

    Distribution and Behaviour

Striped dolphins are found all around the world in temperate and tropical waters.  They are very acrobatic and love to leap out of the water, performing back flips, somersaults and tail spins.  They like to bow ride alongside passing boats but are easily alarmed and will swim away at speed.  This has lead to them being called "streakers".  They travel in groups of about 100 but sometimes as many as 3,000 dolphins have been seen travelling together.

    Physical Features and Size

When they leap out of the water it is easy to see their lovely colouring.  They are generally a dark grey with paler sides and with a black stripe along their sides.  They have a large curved dorsal fin and dark pectoral fins.  Sometimes they are seen with Common Dolphins but they can easily be distinguished from each other since the Common Dolphin has a black stripe.  Both are about the same size, growing up to about 2.5 metres in length and weighing up to 150 kg.

    Feeding

The striped dolphin usually has at least 75 sharp, pointed teeth on each jaw and these used to eat squid, small fish and krill.  They often hunt alongside tuna and this has lead to them being killed in fishing nets.  However, many more get killed by Japanese whalers who use a tactic called drive fishing to herd them together and kill thousands of them.