|| CW--- MENTIONS OF SA ||
There's this trend on tiktok that's been going on for the past few years that's always bugged me. Well, not much of a trend as much as it is the status quo of the marine wildlife fan community on there. If you've been on sharktok at all, you've almost definitely seen it. Comments on cute videos of sharks about how "evil" dolphins are, people posting videos with scary music about how dolphins are rapists, that they're insanely cruel and sadistic, basically the stereotype of Shark: Evil & Dolphin: Good but reversed as this sort of "REAL marine biology fans know that dolphins are ACTUALLY the evil ones and SHARKS are the perfect sweethearts!" Sentiment.
These are wild animals. It is completely unfair to assign human morals to any of them, period. Dolphin species are declining at an alarming rate, as are sharks. Treating either of them like some sort of evil sea monster that goes around torturing people out of nothing but sheer malice isn't going to accomplish jack shit.
"but dolphins toy with their prey! It's torture!" So do cats.
"But dolphins also rape other dolphins" So do sea otters. So do penguins. So do squirrels, to the point where female squirrels have evolved methods of protection from the males of their species. They are not humans. Stop treating them as such. It is not fair nor productive to put animal behavior on par with abominable human crimes. We know better, they don't.
"Dolphins kill more people a year than sharks!" No they don't. Where the hell did you hear that even. Your chances of getting killed by either are extremely low.
The dolphin thing started off as a meme a few years ago, but it's stuck around as a sort of inside joke on sharktok and I'm just overall really sick of it.