The Bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, has two types, one lives primarily in the ocean and a shorter and slimmer type spends its entire life in the lagoon. Dolphins can live over 50 years and grow up to 12 feet and 1400 pounds. Dolphins are in the whale family and can stay under water for 3 - 4 minutes, but they need to come to the surface to breath because they are mammals like us. The resident lagoon dolphin likes the warm waters of bays and rivers and eats a variety of fish and shellfish. It is unknown how many dolphins live year round in the lagoon but estimates are in the range of 600-800. Their population increases in the summer months, when their ocean living relatives visit the lagoon during mating season. They breed during spring and fall. Dolphin are hunters but when people offer them food they lose their fear of humans. They get sick from eating bait, beer, pretzels, candy and hot dogs. Young dolphins do not survive if mothers compete with them for handouts and don’t teach them to forage. Dolphins learn to associate people with food and can get entangled with fishing hooks and lines and die. Wild dolphins will bite when they are angry, frustrated or afraid. It is against the law to feed or harass wild dolphins, according to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Recently dolphins have experienced an unusual die off in the lagoon.