SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

I USED TO BE SUCH A FAN OF DOLPHIN SHORTS

Story of the week, so far:

Dolphin freed from Speedo

Caught in a life-threatening Speedo, a Sarasota Bay dolphin swam in the suit for almost a month before researchers decided it was time for bottle-nosed Scrappy to strip.

The dark-colored men's bathing suit, which Mote Marine Laboratory researchers noticed stuck on the dolphin 28 days before deciding to intervene, had cut half-inch wounds into his flippers. Eventual infection of the cuts could have killed the dolphin, nicknamed Scrappy in 1998, when the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program started tracking him.

With 30 people and five boats, Scrappy was captured Thursday to remove the tattered bathing suit, and a veterinarian treated his wounds. He was released and is expected to heal on his own.

"There's no way this material was rotting fast enough to have come off of him before it did major damage," said Randall Wells, manager of the research program.

Scrappy was underweight and Wells suspects the swimwear entanglement was hindering his ability to swim, catch fish and even evade predators on account of the shark bites also found on Scrappy's body.

"Hopefully with this off of him he'll be able to heal up just fine in his natural environment," Wells said.

Thank goodness he didn't get caught in this one-piece. The mind boggles at the potential irony, not to mention the enhanced UV exposure he'd have endured.

Remember to mark your calendar, kids. February 27 is Hug a Wet Dolphin Day.