Dolphins: I Always Wanted to Know . .

For a long time I have wondered about this issue. Please reflect on those pictures showing a porpoise or bottle nose dolphin “walking” across the water on its tailfin. I wonder how much a dolphin weighs? 300 to 400 pounds? How long is its tail in proportion to its overall length? Maybe 1/8th? 10-12 inches? So how much effort or energy is required to lift a dolphin 85% out of the water, by its tailfin? If anyone has any ideas, I’d like to hear them. Or knows of a formula that would let me calculate the energy or calories expended by a dolphin in “tail-walking.”

Dolphins are a pretty diverse group.

The dolphins you would normally see in a Sea World type place probably weigh about 200 lbs.

This site claims that the smallest dolphin rarely exceeds 66 lbs.

www.thedolphinplace.com...

But, to my knowledge, the river dolphins don't water walk, maybe they don't have the muscles for it. That's exclusively the realm of the man-sized dolphins I guess.

I can't help you on the forumlas, but the facts you need to plug in are easy to find on the net.

posted by WyrdeOne: “Dolphins are a pretty diverse group. The dolphins you would normally see in a Sea World type place probably weigh about 200 lbs. This site claims that the smallest dolphin rarely exceeds 66 lbs. But, to my knowledge, the river dolphins don't water walk, maybe they don't have the muscles for it. That's exclusively the realm of the man-sized dolphins I guess. I can't help you on the formulas, but the facts you need to plug in are easy to find on the net.

posted by WyrdeOne: Dolphins are a pretty diverse group. This site claims that the smallest dolphin rarely exceeds 66 lbs (30 kg).

Very Good Website. Thanks
www.thedolphinplace.com...
This site has converted metric into English units.
9ft (2.75 meters) in length and weigh 440 lbs. (200 kg)
3.9 ft (1.2 meters) in length and 66 lbs (30 kg) weight
Food estimated at about 66 lb (30 kg) a day
8.2 ft (2.5 meters) in length and 220 lb (100 kg) in weight.



[edit on 4/21/2006 by donwhite]

I can do that while wearing diving fins on my feet. You do have to kick pretty hard, but it's not too hard to do it.

Yea I am a USS swimmer, and water polo player and I have never seen anybody get out to the equivalent ratio as that of a dolphin. I have seen guys tread water and do a sudden jump where they might get out past there knees. But it is a split second and it is just the up movement. But Dolphins can swim much faster than any human ( and regrettably my idol Michael Phelps ) So I am sure that they have the muscle strength to do it.

hrmm... Well I can do it about half calf level. Then again I'm not a swimmer, I'm built more like a football player/body builder. My leg muscles are huge. Were you talking about barefoot or with fins on?

Originally posted by Snap
hrmm... Well I can do it about half calf level. Then again I'm not a swimmer, I'm built more like a football player/body builder. My leg muscles are huge. Were you talking about barefoot or with fins on?

I was talking about barefoot, during a water polo game. But he is our best player, if I try amazingly hard (I am primarly a swimmer) I can get up like with my butt out of the water. So to see dolphins bust this out, is a definate put down lol.

Not really much of a put down. Remember they have built-in fins, so it's about the same as wearing a pair on your feet. Stick a pair of human feet on a dolphin and let's see 'em do it!

Hmm, I've never tried to see how high I can tread barefoot.