Reader George Elizondo captured a very unique predator-prey reaction, a dolphin flipping what looks like a flounder out of the water in a feeding frenzy.
“I have never seen this before in Lake Sabine. The water was very, very salty. The porpoises were circling and herding the fish in the south levee pocket in water about 5-6 ft deep. Best I could count; there were about 4 porpoises. I followed them about a mile down the levee until it got too shallow for them.”
Photo courtesy George Elizondo
“I had my camera with me when I went speck fishing Aug. 19 on the south levee road on Pleasure Island. At first I thought they were sharks, until they started jumping out of the water throwing fish in the air and catching them.”
Thanks to Mr. Elizondo for giving us a glimpse of this feeding phenomenon.
Dolphins are always interesting to watch and their ability to flip flounder out of the water and corral schools of fish is amazing to see. Several readers reported seeing dolphins flip flounder around them during the fall run in Cameron last year in water as shallow as three feet deep.
Hopefully this will not incite more of the humorous calls for dolphin control that inspired me to write the editorial in Texas Fish & Game called “Shooting Flipper?”. This is a natural part of the cycle and to blame dolphins any flounder population problem and ignore things like commercial harvest and bycatch is just plain silly.