Unbelievable video shows dolphins getting HIGH off underwater 'drug'

A video emerged online showing dolphins appearing in a game of puff, puff, splash.

Footage of the dolphins captured by researchers showed a group of the underwater animals passing around a puffer fish to one another with their fins.

If provoked, this certain kind of puffer fish, emits a nerve toxin called tetrodotoxin. The toxin is found in their skin and is lethal to humans.

See more photos to this story

However, dolphins are able to not only withstand small doses of the toxin, but they can also experience a narcotic effect that they can deliberately manipulate for recreational drug use.

And judging from the clip above, these dolphins were well aware.

During these sessions, dolphins will typically leave the puffer fish alive to ensure that toxins last longer.

SEE ALSO: Bull on the run! Cow leads police on hours-long chase to escape slaughterhouse

Murdoch University researcher Krista Nicholson monitors the activity of dolphin living nearby in Australia's coastal waters.

She says that she has seen similar behavior of dolphins "getting high" closer to her proximity, but that there are many more examples across the globe.

Researcher Krista Nicholson from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, monitors dolphins living in nearby coastal waters.

SEE ALSO: Dolphins recorded having a conversation, like humans

BBC's documentary, "Dolphins – Spy in the Pod," captured dolphins engaging in the strange activity in 2014.

It was the first time such apparent recreational drug use had been documented in dolphins

"They were hanging around with their noses at the surface as if fascinated by their own reflection," executive producer John Downer said at the time.

However, some dispute the theory that dolphins use pufferfish to get high, claiming that the ocean dwellers only manipulate the toxin to get a numbing sensation instead.

RELATED: A look at Military dolphins