Featured Image Credit: Time and Tide Tours
By Sarah Sharkey
Researchers have discovered exactly how much fish a dolphin needs to survive in the wild. On average, the common bottlenose dolphin needs between 10 and 25 kgs (22 – 55 pounds) of fish per day to survive in the ocean. That is a lot of fish!
That amount of fish translates into roughly 60 portions of salmon or 33,000 calorie intake every day. Definitely more than the average human can eat. Even more than the average Olympic swimmer, who burn about 12,000 calories a day.
The variation in calorie intake can be attributed to the activities the dolphin is engaging in and the temperature of the ocean. Just like us, they expend less calories when they are resting versus when they are diving.
The study’s lead scientist, Andreas Fahlman of Woods Hole Oceanogrpahic Institution and the Oceanographic Foundation in Spain, is hoping that this information will help to plan for the conservation of wild dolphins in the future. Fahlman had this to say about the study’s impact, “We can then add this up for all dolphins and estimate how much fish/prey they need. This may be vitally important when considering managing fisheries and making sure that the quota are not too high so that animals lack food.”
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