APNewsBreak: Feds seek rules for swims with Hawaii dolphins

Sometimes her swimming group will see spinner dolphins gliding or jumping near their course.

If the dolphins stick around, tour boats will inevitably show up, sometimes 20 at a time, all dropping passengers with floaties in the water for a swim.

"Disturbing their resting behaviors can actually affect their long term health and the health of the population," said Ann Garrett, the assistant regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service's protected resources division for the Pacific Islands.

Some Kona operators follow guidelines that local tours established, which include avoiding four dolphin resting bays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. But Merrill said only three of the 12 Kona coast tour operators she knows of follow the guidelines.

Julian Tyne, an honorary postdoctoral researcher at Australia's Murdoch University, said spinner dolphins off the Big Island were exposed to human interaction about 80 percent of the time over the three years he studied them from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

[...] instead of proposing rules, officials have sponsored research to better understand spinner dolphin behavior and promoted a voluntary program that discouraged swimming with the animals.

Federal authorities have prosecuted tour operators for feeding bottlenose dolphins in Florida waters, but dolphin feeding has never been a problem in Hawaii.