Mooring dolphins – thick pile, most often protected against corrosion, depending on the environmental requirements (a bundle of piles or a pipe), driven into the bottom of the reservoir and protruding above the water surface, used for various purposes depending on its purpose. Some examples below:
• as a mooring handle
• in the port aquarium as an axis for tight turning of vessels (the so-called port turntable)
• as a cover for the entrance to a hydrotechnical structure, e.g. entrance to a canal, port, lock, dock
• as a cover for the banks of the canal, breakwater, etc., especially if they are shallow
• as a marking out and, at the same time, covering the edge of the fairway delimited among the shallows
• as a kind of beacon or pedestal for such a sign
• as a place to determine the deviation of the magnetic compass, the so-called Deviant dolphin - smaller vessels moor at such a dolphin and rotating around it determine the compass correction at different courses
• as a border mark