Dolphin attacks injure swimmers on a Japanese beach

Four swimmers have been injured in dolphin attacks on a beach in central Japan. One man in his 60s suffered broken ribs and bites to his hands after a dolphin rammed him off Suishohama beach in Mihama, Fukui prefecture. Two more people were injured by the mammals later in the day. Fukui has now recorded six such attacks this year. Signs have been put up telling swimmers to avoid approaching or touching the mammals. Dolphins are not usually aggressive to humans, but hostility towards swimmers is not uncommon. Scientists have suggested that wild bottlenose dolphins find swimming alongside humans "incredibly stressful," disrupting their behavioral routines. In 2013, two women were injured in ten days by the same dolphin, and five swimmers had to be rescued off the Irish coast when a dolphin encircled them aggressively. Dolphins are known to behave extremely violently towards their fellow sea creatures, as seen in Cornwall, England, where a bottlenose dolphin was seen flipping a porpoise into the air as part of an aggressive attack.