Is it a shark, or a dolphin?

[PaparockArk]

I will say it is a very large dolphin. When I fished offshore in the Gulf of Mexico I was amazed at the size of the dolphins I often saw. My reason for saying dolphin is a combination of body shape, dorsal fin shape but at least 90% due to the tail formation.  The tail of a dolphin moves up and down for propulsion and is at a right angle to the dorsal fin on a dolphin while on a shark the tail is in line strait up and down as to propel the shark with a side to side motion. If the tail on the animal in question was a shark it would be at a right angle to the lens of the camera and be much clearer as the dorsal fin is. The tail is so blurred due the flat up and down nature of a dolphin's tail structure placing the tail at a sharp angle from the lens of the camera therefore blurring the image more.  From the years I spent offshore fishing and watching dolphin I have to go large dolphin. I preferred to eat the sharks I caught especially the Black Tip sharks but I always wanted to catch a Mako shark. Some sharks are not good eating, to small, too big to handle safely, so those sharks l released. Anyway, that's my two cents.

All dolphins are toothed whales belonging to the sub-order, odontocetes, of the order cetacea. As a group, dolphins are often referred to as "small" cetaceans, even though some of them are quite large, attaining lengths of over 20 feet. In addition, although the terms dolphins and porpoises are often used interchangeably, they really refer to two different types of animals.

Porpoises belong to the family Phocoenidae. They are generally smaller and more robust species. Most attain about 5-7 feet in length. Porpoises have no distinct beak, or rostrum. Their foreheads slope almost uniformly to the tip of their snout, and their teeth are spade-like in shape. The family Phocoenidae is rather small, and consists of only six members.

Dolphins belong to the family Delphinidae. Dolphins possess a distinct beak. Their teeth are conical in shape. Most species of dolphins are larger than porpoises, with the males usually being larger than the females. The family Delphinidae is the largest and most diverse family of the cetacean order and includes 26 living species.

[BucketmouthAngler13]

Im a dork and proud of it