Christoffer and the family were out with the boat to fish on the West Coast when they were unexpectedly joined by a striped dolphin.
– I have been fishing here since I was nine years old but have never seen anything like it before, says Christoffer Fredriksson to TV4 Nyheterna.
36-year-old Christoffer Fredriksson in Vänersborg has been fishing in the area around Kosterhavet on the West Coast since he was nine years old, but never before has he come across a striped dolphin.
On Monday evening, he and the family were on their way out with the boat to fish, but the fishing trip was abruptly interrupted when they suddenly spotted the unusual mammal off Rossö-Lyngholmen.
– It was a bit dramatic because at first we thought it was a seal, then I saw a fin and thought it must be a shark that you usually see in horror films, says Christoffer.
– But when we went a little closer, we could ascertain that it was a dolphin, he continues.
The dolphin followed the boat for just over an hour, and the children on board managed to capture the entire journey in pictures.
– When we stopped, it stopped, and when we gasped, it gassed.
– It started jumping and playing in the air. It was very cool.
Last seen at Väderöarna
Åsa Dalsätt, biologist at the National Museum of Natural History, confirms to TV4 Nyheterna that it is a striped dolphin. She adds that the species was last seen at the Weather Islands, not far from the Koster Sea, in 2020.
– But also in 1998, the species was seen in Swedish waters, but then for a longer time and further south, near Halmstad, she tells TV4 Nyheterna.
Åsa Dalsätt also advises about the website Valar.se who gladly receive reports of whales, to which the dolphins belong.