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Are dolphins in the lake?

If so, officials are baffled by how they could have gotten there.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published February 7, 2007

SEMINOLE -- Cue the theme song from Flipper.

A reported sighting of three dolphins in Lake Seminole has city, county and state officials scratching their heads over what appears to be an impossibility for a landlocked, freshwater lake.

The lake does have a weir for outflow, but even then "there's just no possible way for a dolphin to fit in there," said Kelli Levy, a Pinellas County environmental program coordinator.

"They would have to swim through a few feet of water under Park Boulevard, then jump like 12 feet in the air over the weir. I can't think why they would want to do that."

Alternatively, Levy said, the dolphins could have been swept into the lake at 10015 Park Blvd. if a "big, humongous hurricane" came along.

"It would take something like that," she said.

Levy was responding to a plea for help from the city of Seminole, which received an anonymous e-mail last Thursday:

"At the risk of sounding a little crazy, I would like to mention to someone in Seminole gov't. that at 8 am Wed. 1/31/07 I saw what appeared to be three dolphins swimming in the SW corner of Lake Seminole near Park Boulevard. My girlfriend saw them as well. I thought I should at least report it to someone and found this e-mail contact for Seminole." It was signed "Concerned Citizen."

A city official forwarded the note to Levy with this note:

"Have you ever heard of dolphins in Lake Seminole? Is it possible for them to get through the weir from the bayou to the lake? Also, if this is true, we have a problem as these critters are saltwater tolerant."

Despite her doubts about the sighting, Levy reported the story to the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which dispatched biologist Ken Arrison to the lake in search of dolphins.

Arrison spent four hours walking around the park Friday and saw "a lot of humans and a lot of great birds, but no dolphins," he said.

If they're there, Arrison said, it's likely they'll be seen again because dolphins have to come up for air fairly frequently.

Both Arrison and Levy hope "Concerned Citizen" will contact them with more information. Thus far, he has not responded to requests for comment to his e-mail address from the city, county, state or Neighborhood Times.

Levy suggested the couple might have mistaken grass carp for dolphin. Grass carp were put into the lake in the late 1990s to eat the grass.

They reach 35 to 40 pounds and "they kind of come to the surface and they kind of roll over," she said.

Arrison suggested the sighting may have been diving birds. When cormorants dive, he said, their backs will break the water.

And perhaps, there's one more explanation, Arrison posited.

"You never know, maybe Lake Seminole has its own Nessie," he said, referring to the legendary Loch Ness Monster.

Watch for critters in the water

If residents see any dolphins, turtles or manatees (dead or alive) around Lake Seminole, they should call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation hotline toll-free at 1-888-404-3922 and a biologist will be sent to check out the situation.

[Last modified February 7, 2007, 07:29:05]