Tuimelaar Tursiops truncatus bij Camperduin

A Bottle-nosed Dolphin Tursiops truncatus war observed 26- 27 September 1992 at Camperduin. On the first day, the dolphin was seen during one hour, swimming slowly at some 300-400 m from the seawatching site in all directions. On the second day it was seen during 2½ hours, now being more playful, swimming fast, breaching clear out of the water and overtaking a small sailing vessel nearby. A review of recent sightings in Dutch waters is given (figure 1). An exceptional year was 1990, with sightings of small herds (totalling 28 individuals) during an aerial survey in June, corpses at sea and on the beach in April and July, and a resident that was found dead later, between April 1990 and April 1991 at the Brouwersdam. Two solitary Bottle-nosed Dolphins were observed far offshore in 1991. These were the first records for years of a species which was a common inhabitant of Dutch coastal waters in the 1930s and 1940s. All recent records are considered more likely to be a consequence of the exceptionally high sea water temperatures in both 1990 and 1992 than of a gradual return of the species.