Extremely Rare Pink Dolphin Spotted in a Lake in Louisiana

PINK DOLPHINS EXIST IN THE REAL WORLD
Captain Erik Rue happened to be in charge of a chartered fishing boat on June 24th on the Calcasieu Lake in southwestern Louisiana when he spotted five bottleneck dolphins swimming alongside his boat about ten feet from where he was standing.

One of the five dolphins was extremely pink in skin color. After taking a few pictures of this rare dolphin, he wrote the following description of his experience in his own website:"It appears to be a freak of nature, an albino dolphin with glossy pink skin and reddish eyes."

Pink dolphins have been spotted in such isolated areas as the Amazon river, but not in North America. In fact, the Amazon pink dolphins are in danger of being "functionally extinct" because the Brazilian government are building a hydro-electric dam in the middle of the pink dolphins native habitat.

HYDRO- ELECTRIC DAMS AND DOLPHINS DON'T MIX
Hydro-electric dams tend to isolate groups of dolphins that are in the vicinity of these huge underwater machines and they lead to the creation of two smaller populations. Since that reduces the total number of dolphins, the breeding potential is much less like to take place. Also hunters seem to love the pink flesh of the dolphins as they continually use the pink skin as bait to catch other, bigger fish.

Every year, numerous dead and mutilated pink dolphin carcasses are found all over the Amazon river area, sometimes with the hunter's initials carved in the fin area of the dead dolphin. This trend towards killing the pink dolphins for sport has led to a decrease in the pink dolphin population by 10 percent each year, which will lead to total extinction unless some strict hunter laws are put in place by the Brazilian government very soon.

HISTORY OF THE PINK DOLPHIN
Henri de Blainville first described the pink dolphin in 1817 upon viewing one on a trip to the Amazon. He noticed that some of these dolphins start out by being a shade of Grey when they are first born, and then gradually turn pink in color as they mature.