“They ran hard, but they all held on to their drinks,” a Facebook post from See Through Canoe said.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — For a group of beachgoers in St. Petersburg, a relaxing swim in the Gulf took a “fin-tastically” funny turn.
In a video posted by See Through Canoe — a local canoe and kayak store — six men appear to be standing in a circle while treading water, when a dolphin swims through and flaps its tail up and down. Within seconds, they begin to frantically wade through the water and back to shore.
“They ran hard, but they all held on to their drinks,” the social media post reads.
Some commentators on the post say the animal appeared to be a shark — and perhaps, the men in the video might have figured the same.
But as the See Through Canoe notes, “The fear is real but the danger isn’t.”
How to tell the difference between a shark and dolphin
They both live in the ocean, and they’re both large with similar features. So, how do you tell which animal is which if it happens to pass by?
According to the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, sharks swim in a continuous lateral (side-to-side) motion, and the pectoral fins on either side of the body are positioned and shaped to help the shark maneuver.
Meanwhile, dolphins move their tail fin, or fluke, in an up-and-down motion to propel themselves through water, which is visible in See Through Canoe’s video.
“It amazes me how many people are saying it’s a shark in this video,” the company said in the post.