I have been looking at the images of dolphins I took last weekend – and I have a question:
When you are this size and this shape, how fast do you have to go to carve a furrow in the sea this deep?
3 thoughts on “On sailing a Folksong – Dolphins”
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Beyond Steeple Point 
This reminded me of this article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13553-dolphins-swim-so-fast-it-hurts.html
54kmh is a huge achievement of course, but the dolphin’s body is also built for this kind of impressive performance…I don’t have a reference as i do not remember where i read it but essentially, human muscles accumulate calcium as they operate and this is what causes pain and fatigue. The dolphin’s body metabolism is different. So they can swim at high speed (something that involves a lot of “muscle usage” of course) for long times and still be “fresh” 😀
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I’ve recently read that the limiting factor is the pain the Dolphin feels in it’s tail when it reaches a certain speed. May be something to do with cavitation. I’m trying to find the article but of course it’s decided to hide!
Happy New Year!