--- title: Watch a Group of Dolphins Get Stoned Underwater description: Taking in the watered-down neurotoxins, the dolphins start to get a little "groovy" canonical: https://time.com/3735476/teenage-dolphin-stoners/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-06T17:06:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:17:27.319Z og:title: Watch a Group of Teenage Dolphins Get Stoned on a Poisonous Fish og:description: Taking in the watered-down neurotoxins, the dolphins start to get a little "groovy" og:url: https://time.com/3735476/teenage-dolphin-stoners/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch a Group of Teenage Dolphins Get Stoned on a Poisonous Fish twitter:description: Taking in the watered-down neurotoxins, the dolphins start to get a little "groovy" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch a Group of Teenage Dolphins Get Stoned on a Poisonous Fish by [Kelli Bender / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Kelli Bender / People Contributor Mar 6, 2015 5:06 PM UTC by [Kelli Bender / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Kelli Bender / People Contributor Mar 6, 2015 5:06 PM UTC Dolphins are hiding a dirty little secret under the waves. Using hidden cameras, some designed to look like pufferfish, Discovery Channel was able to get up close to a group of teenage bottlenose dolphins for their special Dolphins: Spy in the Pod, and they found some of them may have a bit of a drug problem. In this clip, a rowdy pod of young dolphins play catch with a real pufferfish, passing around the inflated sea creature. After several minutes of being tossed around, the pufferfish gets angry and releases a fog of neurotoxins. Though lethal when ingested directly, the toxins quickly disperse in the water and become diluted. Taking in the watered-down neurotoxins, the dolphins start to get a little “groovy.” The pod members take turns passing around the pufferfish, so everyone can get a buzz. After all the dolphins have had a hit, the pod relaxes and the pufferfish escapes. This footage is the first time dolphins have been caught on camera indulging in recreational “drug” use. Who knows what else they’re hiding. To learn more, watch the Discovery Channel special Dolphins: Spy in the Pod on Saturday at 8/7c p.m. _This_ [_article_](http://www.peoplepets.com/people/pets/article/0,,20905935,00.html) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://www.people.com)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3735476/teenage-dolphin-stoners/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3735476/teenage-dolphin-stoners/"},"headline":"Watch a Group of Teenage Dolphins Get Stoned on a Poisonous Fish","datePublished":"2015-03-06T17:06:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:17:27.319Z","description":"Flipper gets ripped","url":"https://time.com/3735476/teenage-dolphin-stoners/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kelli Bender / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3735476/teenage-dolphin-stoners/","name":"Watch a Group of Teenage Dolphins Get Stoned on a Poisonous Fish"}}]}] ```