Adorable video shows dolphins helping to clear up plastic

Perth Now

16-07-2025

In an incredible display of intelligence, the moment that a pod of dolphins in the Bahamas seemingly helped a woman pick up plastic cups from the ocean has been captured in a TikTok video.
The woman is sat on a pier and films the moment that a dolphin retrieves a plastic cup that she accidentally dropped in the sea.
'You guys are so nice . . . thank you. I dropped the cups. He's trying to give it to me' she said as she films a dolphin pick up the cup in its mouth.
She reaches to try and grab the plastic cup from its mouth but can't quite reach, so then tries to retrieve the plastic with a net but still can't get it.
The dolphin then resurfaces again with the cup in its mouth and comes far enough out of the water for her to grab it.
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'Oh thank you . . . you're so sweet' she said after she safely retrieved the plastic cup.
The video quickly went viral on TikTok, amassing two million views and was flooded with comments from people who were amazed by the dolphin behaviour.
'He looked so proud of himself when you grabbed it 🥺' one person said.
'Dolphin: 'Ma'am please take your garbage back' 🤣' another commented. The video shows the dolphin picking up the plastic, returning it to the woman, then looking 'proud' afterwards according to one of the comments. Credit: TikTok
Dolphins are renowned for their intelligence, so much so that Google are developing an AI model that can communicate with these marine mammals.
'In collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology and the nonprofit Wild Dolphin Project, Google has announced progress on what the team has as the first large language model for dolphin vocalizations, called DolphinGemma,' Scientific American announced in March 2025.
In Western Australia, there was recently an incredible wildlife spectacle in Koombana Bay involving dolphins, when a pod seemed to guide a young humpback whale that was lost back out to sea.
'The dolphins took over and while playing and interacting with each other they slowly guided their large cousin out of the bay towards the deeper waters of Geographe Bay' The Dolphin Discovery Centre said.