Picture a dolphin diving toward the seafloor with something odd on its nose. It is not a shell or a fish. It is a sea sponge. The dolphin isn’t playing; it’s using the sponge as a diving mask: a clear ...

One dolphin swam past, her nose oddly enlarged. On a closer look, the bulb was a marine sponge — wedged tightly onto her beak like a soft, fleshy glove. She was not playing. She was hunting. Off the ...

BOTTLE NOSE DOLPHIN SWIMMING FAST AND PLAY WITH SPONGE© Yann hubert/Shutterstock.com In Shark Bay, Western Australia, some Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins use sponges as tools while they hunt.