George is back!
 |
| HE'S BACK: George the dolphin has been spotted off Kimmeridge after an absence of five years |
GEORGE the dolphin, Dorset's favourite marine mammal, has made a surprise comeback.
The playful bottlenose shot to fame in 2002 when he spent the summer entertaining swimmers on county beaches.
But the dolphin, also known as Randy or Flipper, hasn't been spotted off Dorset's shores for years and there were reports in 2003 that he may have been killed in a boat accident.
It seems George was just playing with us after reports that he has been sighted off Kimmeridge and in Weymouth Harbour.
George was spotted chasing boats and frolicking in the water near the coastguard HQ on the quayside.
John Brashier, of Portland Coastguard, spotted George.
He said: "The vessel Offshore Rebel came up the harbour and my colleague said he saw a dorsal fin.
"Then it followed a second vessel up and it actually made itself visible by broaching itself in the water. It was quite large.
"Then a yacht went up towing a small dinghy and it went right up to the owner.
"It was playing about for about half an hour, following the boats as they came in. It went right up towards the town bridge."
George's visit to Weymouth Harbour came after he was first spotted at Kimmeridge.
Dorset Wildlife Trust marine wardens at Kimmeridge were called out to identify a dolphin that had been following the Ministry of Defence Range Boat in the Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve.
The solitary 10ft bottlenose dolphin was identified as George by a small nick underneath his dorsal fin. The dolphin, who acquired the nickname Randy due to an attraction to women in wetsuits, gained cult status after an operation to lure him back to his native waters off the coast of Cherbourg failed.
Over the following months he was then known to pop up at various beaches across the county to the delight of holidaymakers.
Dorset Wildlife Trust has stressed that despite dolphins' playful natures, they can be dangerous and the law prevents boats from approaching them.
It also wants to emphasise the danger dolphins like George are under from human activity, and the need for greater protection.
If you have seen George call the newsdesk on 01305 830999. To email us a picture click here
7:55am Saturday 8th September 2007
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: gary neal, weymouth on 10:43am Mon 10 Sep 07
At around 6.30pm friday evening i was heading into the harbour in a speedboat when george appeared behind our boat playing in the bubbles from our outboard,spent the next hour trying to get him to follow us out to sea with no luck,but got some nice video footage he was close enough to touch
At around 6.30pm friday evening i was heading into the harbour in a speedboat when george appeared behind our boat playing in the bubbles from our outboard,spent the next hour trying to get him to follow us out to sea with no luck,but got some nice video footage he was close enough to touch
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
