In Venice, a playful wild dolphin who just won't leave

Venice has been charmed by a recent visitor: an acrobatic wild dolphin. The feeling appears to be mutual - he so far refuses to leave - but proximity to humans has put him in danger.

- BY COLLEEN BARRY

The dolphin nicknamed Mimmo has been delighting tourists and Venetians for months with his acrobatic flips. Experts are now eager to move him into open water, especially after verifying wounds indicating that he had probably been hit by a boat propeller.

Multiple agencies used low-intensity acoustic devices to nudge Mimmo away from the heavily trafficked St. Mark's Basin on Saturday - and it worked briefly. But the dolphin came back within an hour, as experts feared he would.

"It's very worrying because it's a hot spot with lots of boat traffic," said Guido Pietroluongo, a veterinarian at the University of Padua's emergency response team for stranded dolphins, whales and porpoises, known as CERT.

St. Mark's Basin, the shallow expanse of water in front of St. Mark's Square connecting to both the Giudecca and Grand canals, is heavily trafficked by ferries, vaporetti buses, water taxis and private boats.