1999 Honorable Mentions

Although the stupidity displayed in the following tales stops short of the ultimate sacrifice, we salute the spirit and innovation shown in these misadventures.

Swim with Dolphins  1999 Honorable Mention Confirmed by Darwin (July 1999, Florida) In Marathon Beach, a guy was fishing with his buddies when he saw fins in the water. "Dolphins!" he thought, and jumped into the water to swim with the dolphins. Surprise! The fins turned out to be shark fins. His buddies fished him out of the ocean, and Mr. One With Nature was treated at a local hospital for shark bites. Submitted by: Dawn Reference: WWDC FM101 Feeding the Dolphins In a related incident, a reader says, "I'm on active duty in the US Coast Guard, and I was stationed In Destin, Florida in 1995. On routine patrol, I noticed a lady standing in four feet of water, 75 feet from the beach, waving baitfish around. I thought she was feeding the dolphins, which is illegal in Florida, so I pulled up alongside her to advise her of the infraction. I looked down, and realized that the tails on these creatures were moving side-to-side, as opposed to up-and-down like a dolphin. Also, none were coming up for air. This misguided lady was feeding a school of sharks! When she realized she was surrounded by ten sharks, she turned white as a ghost, and jumped into my boat before I knew what had happened! The guys back at the station got a good laugh out of that one. By the way, I was also called out on the case above, called, Swimming With Dolphins. DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2009 Submitted by: Jerry Awful? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Great? Hate it! Love it! Previous Next The Darwin Awards Gift Shop Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest Hardback. 304 pages. Autographed. $15 The human race's most popular humor series returns with a brand-new collection of macabre mishaps and misadventures. Honoring those who improve our gene pool by inadvertently removing themselves from it, the Darwin Awards III shows once more how uncommon common sense still is. Salute the sheriff who inadvertently shot himself--twice! Witness the insurance defrauder who amputated his leg with a chainsaw! Heed the story of the farmer who avoided bee stings by sealing his head in a plastic bag! Cringe at the man crushed by a branch he'd just severed... directly over his head! 123 new stories, 18 full-page illustrations, plus discussions of transgenic animals, the origin of life, and more. Autographed by Author!   Advanced Search HomeRulesFAQsAwardsSlushSite Map DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend