Are dolphins at risk

The common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is not on the Endangered Species List and is not considered a threatened species. They are frequently seen off Southern California, sometimes by the hundreds.

Common dolphins don't have any natural enemies, quite possibly because they wiped them all out long ago. Most people think these small dolphins are relatively harmless, and they couldn't be more wrong. Dolphins are probably as friendly as they are because they can afford to be. All a dolphin has to do to kill you is point its head at you and whistle a certain way, and you die from a sound so intense it can literally tear your cells apart.

These dolphins navigate by echolocation, sending out sound in a 10 degree cone and listening for echos. But by tensing some very fine muscles surrounding an oil-filled gland in its head called a melon, a dolphin can change the focus of that sound so that it comes together at a single point, just like sunlight through a magnifying glass. All of the toothed whales (Odonticetes) have this weapon, but they are so restrained in their use of it that we didn't even suspect its existence until 1937, and we didn't have proof that it existed until the late 1980s.