Last month threw up a number of stories about dolphins and porpoises. At the start of the month, a motorboat was blamed for injuring a pod of the former off the coast of Cornwall, with footage on social media showing their dorsal fins sliced open or cut off. Two weeks later, a dolphin nicknamed Reggie allegedly tried to drown several people off the Dorset coast, with observers noticing that the lone male had a penchant for women in wetsuits.

Reggie was also spotted mocking a group near Lyme Regis, coming up from behind and miming them treading water. As his legend grew, so did the number of admirers: paddle-boarders seeking him out at sunset were criticised for ‘surrounding’ the wild animal.

Dolphins are funny old creatures: playful, agile and fiercely intelligent. Although fiction has a

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