At the southernmost outpost in Stockholm’s archipelago, Marc Nylander and Fredrik Sangberg were out trolling for salmon.
But there was no salmon. Instead, they were treated to a dolphin safari.
– It was as awesome as anything, says Marc Nylander.
In the archipelago outside Landsort in Nynäshamn, the boat moved slowly on the morning of National Day. Maximum three knots.
– We were out fishing for salmon. There is a lot of salmon fishing this year, says Marc Nylander.
Suddenly they thought they saw some fins out on the horizon. Could it be dolphins? They quickly dismissed the idea.
– We thought it must be seals, it’s not unusual here.
But then they got out. And right next to the boat, three dolphins swam up and played for several minutes.
– We were completely shocked and hardly believed it was true. You could put your hand down and touch them. We were completely taken, it was not what we expected, says Marc Nylander.
The biologist: “Unusual”
Didrik Vanhoenacker is a biologist at the National Museum of Natural History. He determines that there are three bottlenose dolphins that swam alongside Marc and Fredrik’s boat.
– You can see that in the pattern on the dolphin’s side. It is unusual to see them here, but is becoming increasingly common, says Didrik Vanhoenacker to TV4 Nyheterna.
The bottlenose dolphin occurs mainly in tropical and temperate sea areas. So how the three dolphins got all the way to the Stockholm archipelago, Didrik Vanhoenackers does not know. But he has a theory.
– I would guess that they are looking for food. That they followed some shoal of fish and happened to end up here in the Baltic Sea, he says.
Several whales aimed
Vanhoenacker believes that the theory can be applied to several cases where rarer dolphins and whales have entered Swedish waters. For example, when a dead orca floated ashore in Hunnebostrand a couple of weeks ago.
The last time bottlenose dolphins were observed in Sweden was on April 13 this year, when a couple of miles north of Nyköping.
– Maybe it’s the same three dolphins, says Didrik Vanhoenacker.