Image
© Gregory Smith/FlickrBottlenose dolphins, shown here near the Galapagos, are rare near Denmark.
The Bay of Aarhus has some new playful and curious inhabitants in the form of a breed of dolphin that hasn't been spotted in more than seven decades.

Bottlenose dolphins are usually a rare sight in the waters surrounding Denmark but in the past week there have been several spotted swimming near the nation's second-largest city, Aarhus.

Rowers and boaters in the Bay of Aarhus have had unusual company over the past week or so. Several Danes have reported that they have seen dolphins swimming in the bay and a handful of videos are starting to circulate around the internet.

Marine biologist Carl Christian Kinze told TV2 Østjylland that the recent sightings of bottlenose dolphins are incredibly rare.

"They haven't been seen in the Bay of Aarhus with certainty for more than 20 years," he said.


Kinze said that there are around 40 different breeds of dolphin worldwide and about ten of them have been spotted around Denmark throughout the years.

With lengths of up to four metres, the bottlenose dolphins are nearly twice as large as the harbour porpoises that are fairly common in Danish waters.

The lucky Danes who have spotted the dolphins reported that they seemed playful and curious.

"The played with the boat and swam around it. They were really playful. I think they were with us for about an hour," Doris Byriel told TV2 Østjylland.