The dolphin attacked a man, breaking his ribs, before moving on to another swimmer. Video / @itaiTikTok
Video has captured the moment a dolphin attacked swimmers in the seas off a picturesque Japanese beach, leaving one man with multiple injuries and bystanders shocked.
The dramatic scene was recorded in the Japanese town of Mihama, which has reportedly seen a series of similar incidents.
The Sun reported that a man in his 60s suffered bites to his hands and multiple broken ribs when the marine mammal attacked him.
The video starts as kayakers appear to be attempting to guard the man as he makes his way toward shore.
The man is seen to be struggling against something underwater.
On the same day, another man in the area was bitten on the arm, the BBC reports.
Local officials have warned swimmers not to enter the water if they see dolphins.
Although dolphins are known to show aggression to other sea life, attacks on humans are rare but it is the dolphin’s larger cousins, the orca, who have been making headlines for their violent behaviour.
Scientists have noted increasing reports of orca, which average from 5-6½ metres and weigh more than 3600 kilograms, bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years.
An orca moves along a rudder of the Team JAJO entry in The Ocean Race. Photo / AP
The behaviour defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters — 13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing. The fact that two are adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.
Last month, a pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with the Iberian orca.
The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was “a scary moment.”
“Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas,” he said in the video. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”
