He must have been retarded. Normally sea mammals can tell the difference. Ive been fishing with live bait before and theyll take the bait (hardtails) in their mouths, but not touch the hook. Its almost as if they were playing with me cause theyd take my bait, swim out pulling out a ton of line, then right as I get it back they would take them back out!
Also when we bottom fish we commonly get dolphins around our boat waiting for us to toss back fish that are to short as they eat them. They never hit the fish as we are reeling them in, but swallow them up as soon as they hit the water after we toss them back.