Local mayor forbids people to go in the sea after creature tried to rub against swimmers

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A mayor on France’s Brittany coast took the rare step of banning swimming for several days after a solitary frisky dolphin tried to get too close to bathers.

Roger Lars decided last week that it was safest to ban swimming and diving on the coast near Landévennec, where the over-friendly dolphin had been spotted.

He banned anyone getting closer than 50 metres to the rutting three-metre dolphin, whom locals nicknamed Zafar.

The dolphin was not aggressive, but he had taken to trying to rub up against swimmers and boats, the local paper Le Télégramme reported.

Zafar had enthusiastically sidled up to several swimmers who he had then prevented from reaching the shore. One had to be rescued by boat.

“Several swimmers were very frightened,” the mayor told the paper Ouest-France.

One local lawyer told Agence France-Presse he wanted to lodge a legal complaint against the ban because it was excessive. “How many dolphin accidents have there been in Finistère since our two species have co-existed? None.” He said it was unfair to dolphins to present them as dangerous or unpredictable.

Local media reported on Monday that the swimming ban had been lifted after Zafar moved away from the coast.