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This morning found us setting off in great sea conditions once more with a slight offshore blowing.The forecast had predicted a sprinkling of rain early morning - however the rainclouds stayed offshore for us! A pod of the local #dolphinsofponta were sighted on our norther leg in the middle of Ponta Bay. The large, mix pod was heading north - and amongst the sea of dorsal fins adult males Feather, Avalon and Skellitor were spotted. Images: 1: Adult male Feather 2: Beautiful skies 3: Juvenile with large remora and skin lesions 4: New fin female! 5: Belly up circle swimming 6: Thank you to Keith, Colleen and the kids for joining us! Visibility sadly had not improved and we were grateful that our dolfriends were so accommodating! Volunteer Emma was initiated into the circle swimmers club after having dizzying circle swims with a young female who - interestingly enough Emma unknowingly met two days before! It was a beautiful dolphin diving day! Please visit our album page for images and screen grabs of encountours taken by our team! MAY AWESOME IMAGES Thank you to our respectful dolphin observers, the local #dolphinsofponta and DolphinCare Volunteer Emma for the great video edit.

We have certainly been blessed with a magical May with both weather and dolfriends treating us very kindly. Granted it’s a bit chilly early mornings - however the water is sitting at around 24.5 degrees at the moment. After being on land for four days, the team was keen to head off with our eager dolphin seekers. We were greeted with calm seas and great sightings of the local #dolphinsofponta who were observed in Malongane bay. The large pod of around 30 dolphins were mostly resting - however a small group of young finned friends peeled off and stayed to engage, offering up direct approaches and circle swims in the green and cloudy visibility. Take note of the 'popping' @ 03:09 in the above diary. An interesting sound the males make! Images: Dolphin on the bow of our boat Avalon! 2: Young dolphins direct approach! 3: Dolphins with Malongane Point in the background 4: Belly up - I'm a girl! Please visit our album page for for top water images and screen grabs of encountours taken by our team! MAY AWESOME IMAGES Thank you to our respectful dolphin observers, the local #dolphinsofponta and DolphinCare Volunteer Emma for the great video edit.

This morning offered the perfect wild dolphin encountour day with flat seas, little to no wind and good visibly. The calm and pleasant boat trip up north found us locating some of our finned friends just south of Madajanine Point. The hunt was on and three dolphins could be seen chasing and munching down on small silvery fish. White flashes of a belly snaking swiftly just beneath the sea surface - then boom - fish in the beak! You can check out what we call 'belly up' hunting in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve below. Soon after, the small pod of three dolphins approached the boat and when slipping in we were greeted by female Ritz and two males who all, seemingly took the opportunity to closely inspect us humans and engage in some circle swimming. Images: A selection of pics from our time with our dolfriends. Ritz showing off a belly-up circle swim in image 6 and an interesting stinger can be seen in image 7. Image 10: Ritz and her merged freckles. Image 11 & 12 - Young adult male with a damaged pectoral and possible shark lesion on tail stock with rake marks. At the end of the encountour the three social dolfriends merged with Gilly and her babe before heading off north - back on the hunt. Thank you to Hildo, Harry and Co and thank you to the local #dolphinsofponta.

With a slight offshore blowing this Moring - the dolphin team headed off with a small group of peeps in search of our finned friends. Halfway through Ponta bay a nursery pod was observed in the coastal shallows close to the backline. The pod was traveling and in the company of adult males who were seemingly ushering moms and babes through the bay. In-water it was clear that the pod was on a mission and had no time to engage with us on-lookers. All was not lost however as the pod passed closely by while we respectively observed from our floating vantage point on the surface of the sea. Images: 1: Volunteer Emma assisting Dallas with boat preparations before pushing in. 2: Sunrise over Ponta Point. 3: Adult male passing close to the camera 4: Pregnant female passing by. 5: A juvenile with some interesting lesions. 6: Dolphin Smiles Thank you to our respectful dolphin observers and thank you to the local #dolphinsofponta.

A slight onshore greeted us this morning as the sun burned off what was left of a fairly heavy mist. The swell has dropped off somewhat and as we slowed for lifejackets some surface splashes were seen off in the distance - possibly ‘chop’ caused from a dive boat heading off to Atlantis or just maybe it was a pod of dolphins… Lucky for us it was the latter and we were soon joined by a nursery pod that where making their way inshore. Local ladies Tatti, Freya, Gilly, Adot and another mum were seen with their babes, together with female Ritz. While mums and some of the calves were resting nearby, Ritz - between circles swims and camera inspections guided two calves between and around observers allowing us all to get a special up-close view of dolphins in the wild, Images: 1: Ritz in the company of two calves coming in to circle swim 2: Candice and Ritz 3: Ritz having a good buzz at the camera 4: Ritz and her jumbo freckles 5: Freya, her male offspring and Ritz 6: Discipline time for the young All April Images - Click to Sea Towards the end - playtime was over and mum Freya together with Ritz can be seen disciplining the little one on the sand below. Thank you to our respectful dolphin observers and thank you to the local #dolphinsofponta.

There was loads of dolphin activity this morning. Our fist observation occurred halfway through the bay on our Northern run. A large pod of some 25 dolphins was spotted Dallas close to the shore milling in the waves. The resting group did not show interest in us so we decided to head up the coast and return later - in hope that they had had a change of behaviour in our absence. Our decision paid off with two further sightings; one of a foraging female manta ray and the other of resident local #dolphinsofponta Rocha and her babe together with Bo and little boy Billy who was very ‘whistley’ in-water. Images: 1: Female Manta Ray 2: Little boy Billy 3: Billy has a top notch! 4: Female SheShy flashing her belly 5: Male Dpec 6: Male Remmy Boy April Images - Click to Sea Heading back home, we had a re-sighting of the ‘backline’ pod, however this time they were surfing and socialising and in no time we had friendly dolfriends surround us in water! Check out the video below for a day in the life of a dolphin encountour guest - getting up close to the dolphins of ponta! Thank you to our fantastic guests for supporting us! It was another wonderful morning spent at sea. Angie and the Dolphin Team

Don't miss the live premiere TONIGHT of the short film produced by Homebrew Films on the endangered Humpback Dolphins! Last February the SeaSearch team joined us in Ponta to collect data on our famous humpback dolphin Herme after Angie had shared a video clip of him whistling with a bubble train! Needless to say he did not disappoint and showed up more than once while PhD candidate Sasha Dines and her supervisor Dr Tess Gridley were here. The Sound of Hope is an accumulation of Sasha's work in acoustic monitoring of this engaged species and includes video of her work here in Mozambique with us. The video here, filmed by Angie Gullan in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve shows Herme in the company of the local bottlenose Dolphins of Ponta! Towards the end you can clearly hear him whistling and see him getting a bit of pec petting! To learn more about her interesting work and to understand a little more about the sounds of humpback dolphins, be sure to tune in. The screening will be followed by a Q and A lead by the SeaSearch Team.

It's turtle time in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve. Annually between the months of October and March the sandy shores of our Reserve welcome both the loggerhead and leatherback turtle! The turtle in the image is a Moz tagged loggerhead that came to shore to nest - she however was not happy and brought to us for some help. As we have no rehabilitation facilities in the the area, it was decided that she should return to the beach and rest - under the watchful eye of the PPMR rangers. Later on that afternoon she returned to the ocean on her own which was great news for all of us! DolphinEncountours.Org has been supporting the turtle project for more than a decade and employs three monitors Antonio, Joao and Augustino who walk the beach to record nests, tracks and sightings. Sadly due to CV19 we are struggling to pay salaries and fund this project which, like all of our projects are funded though our educational dolphin and whale encountours. With that said - if anyone would like to support the PDO Turtle Project in the area please do pop us a message or email. Each monitors salary is Mtn2200 / R500 per month and we also need to purchase the likes of batteries and books too! Every little bit helps at this stage! Images: Leatherback turtle track; Loggerhead turtle track; resting loggerhead Donation details: 1) Mozambique Dolphin Center (Research) BANK: BCI Mozambique Account no: 9271512310001 Branch Name: Agencia da Ponta do Ouro BIC (Bank id) 0008 0000 92715123101 80 IBAN: MZ59 0008 0000 92715123101 80 SWIFT/BIC: CGDIMZMA 2) South Africa DolphinCareAfrica Bank: Nedbank Account Number: 1469057964 Branch: Sandton Branch Code: 146-905 Swift Code: NEDSZAJJ Bank Address: Shop BC35 Sandton City , Sandhurst Ext 3, Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa, 2196 Thank you for your support!

On the 15th October 2020, in the coastal shallows of the Ponta do Ouro Marine Reserve an unusual sighting of a small pod of Pygmy Killer Whales (Feresa attenuata) was had making this the second sighting of this deep water species recoded by the Dolphin Team in 25 years. The area, which borders the South African iSimangaliso World Heritage site is home to a number of marine mammal species including dolphins and whales that are seen throughout the year. Images: Pygmy Killer Whales approaching the boat. This particular observation of the PKW’s took place in shallow waters at 08:35, lasted 20 minutes and included 4 individuals whom we at first thought were adult male bottlenose dolphins about to merge with the nursery pod we were observing, until the pod scattered! Within the nursery group of dolphins, two newborns were sighted and after 7 months of being landbound our team was eager to capture dorsal fin images and observe who of our local #dolphinsofponta were there. Sadly this was not made possible as the nursery pod fled into the protection of the waves with the group of four PKW’s hot on their tails. The dolphins soon disappeared and it was only after a humpback whale, accompanied by her calf cut across the bow of our boat Avalon, heading towards the PKW’s did they then move offshore and disappear. Images: Top - Dolphin fleeing into backline; Bottom - Local Dolphins of Ponta Tatti and Gandalf Pygmy Killer Whales are a deep water species, are rarely encountered and are one of the least studied cetaceans. Their diet generally consists of various fish species and squid and according to Dr Peter Bests writings have been seen to stalk dolphins with calves - giving them a somewhat sinister reputation, leaving us wondering if this is indeed what was happening. This species reaches a maximum of around 2.5m and is distinguishable by their roundish pectorals, dark dorsal fins and a bright white ventral patch that extends to the chin and lips. This un-beaked whale has a rounded head unlike dolphins and a mouth full of sharp teeth! Images: L - The white lips of the Pygmy Killer Whale R - A rare in-water encounter had by Angie Gullan During our August 2018 encounter a much larger pod of around 20 individuals were seen offshore traveling north, pictured above. This marks the third sighting in Mozambique of this interesting species - with the first recorded by Gay Allport whilst out on an informal survey for sea birds in 2017 off the coast of Maputo Bay. The first authenticated record of Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata Gray 1874) in Mozambique; has it been previously overlooked? To find out how you can join us in Ponta do Ouro for a unique marine mammal experience with Africa's pioneer wild dolphin encountour, research & conservation project please email Angie: connect@dolphinencountours.org.

Todays fin Friday shares the interesting life our local lady #dolphinsofponta Silva ( D.07a bdb) who first made it onto the catalogue in the March of 2009! Silva is estimated to be around 15 years old, given that the first image of her shows no ventral speckling and in juvenile stage and has been entered 128 times onto the #dolphincare database. Her most recognisable feature was certainly the nasty scar that can still to this day be seen. Over the years Silva has had her fair share of run-ins with her environment and in 2013 she was observed with some light puncture wounds caused from an encounter with a shark. Over the years we have built a close and trusting relationship with Jaws who later on became known as Silva when she, after many months of being absent arrived back in the southern most reaches of the Reserve in 2015 with a sheared off dorsal fin resembling that of adult females Slide and Slice! By 2018, Silva had taken on the role of babysitter and was seen regularly in the company of little babes who she would bring in for an introduction - always keeping the babe safely on the other side. Silva is a gift giver too and has engaged and passed on gifts to Angie that have included pieces of seaweed and what looks like to be some type of still to be identified tube worm or sea-pen. During 2019 she was observed in social sexual activities with the young males in the area, including Pluto and the boys, and in 2020 she was observed with older, mature male Cheekey! The last encounter we have with Silva was on the 20 Feb 2020, she was resting but still took time out to come for a visit. We have a feeling that when we do see Silva again she will be with child, so exciting times ahead for the Dolphin Team in Ponta! thank you for learning about our local dolfriends - please share our blog PLEASE DONATE TO OUR FUNDRAISER TO HELP DURING CV19 To find out how you can go about adopting one of our special finned friends please visit the site of the Society of Dolphin Conservation in Germany. Don’t forget to checkout our partners at the World Cetacean Alliance to find out more about our vision of A World where cetaceans are only found in the wild, are respected and fully protected!

Hey, hey it’s Fin Friday and spotlight on #dolphinsofponta Rob today! Rob (A. 12bd35t) is undeniably one of the most recognisable dolphins that can be found cruising the coastal shallows of the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve. He can be identified through a series of large white patches that are situated on the left hand side of his body. We are unclear what caused the damages initially however when first encountered Rob had what could be a cookie cutter wound (image 1997), an open circular lesion in-front of the remora. Rob was named after the first dedicated dolphin skipper in Mozambique and is part of the select group that was first identified by founders in the mid 90’st. He was a young adult then and has over the years been recorded 229 times in the area. We guesstimate Rob to be around 35-40 years old. As an elder mature adult male, Rob is heavily speckled (when bottlenose dolphins are born they have no ventral speckling with spots starting to develop at around four years old and increasing with age). For the past two decades he has been recorded mostly in the company of his BF’s Tik and Dylan. Rob and the boys have been known to disappear for months on end and return to procreate and protect their ladies and offspring during the calving season. Rob has never been a conscious interactor or circle swimmer. He, like many of the older males have a certain air about them that leaves one with an immense sense of respect. They are protectors of their tribe, are very aware of their surroundings and when encountered tend to keep their distance. An interesting encounter occurred in the January of 2018, when Rob was observed in the company of Tik (with the seagrass / sargassum) and Dylan while accompanying a small nursery pod. They were resting and very quiet in the water - Rob was the only male to have his penis out which could possibly be a show of dominance. A year later, he and the boys were sighted in the company of pregnant females Sabby and Tatti - it was then that Angie nearly cracked a circle swim with Rob! The overall feeling in the water - again was of respect, however this time there was no resting - the females had seaweed / sargassum and the boys were milling around! Defiantly the best encountour with Rob so far! thank you for learning about our local dolfriends - please share our blog PLEASE DONATE TO OUR FUNDRAISER TO HELP DURING CV19 To find out how you can go about adopting one of our special finned friends please visit the site of the Society of Dolphin Conservation in Germany. Don’t forget to checkout our partners at the World Cetacean Alliance to find out more about our vision of A World where cetaceans are only found in the wild, are respected and fully protected!

Fin Friday this week shines a light on an adult female who goes by the name of Peewee (C.10 bd39m). Peewee first started showing up on the data sheet in the February of 2003. She has a dorsal fin that has remained pretty much unchanged over the years and is characterised by a large middle notch. Like dorsal fins, pectorals also develop unique nicks and notches, and Peewee boasts two of those to! In 2007 Peewee was photographed with a calf and our first underwater image on record is dated 2008 and she was oh so speckled already - so this lady is old - at a guesstimate we are putting her in her mid 30’s! In 2009 Peewee was photographed with a newborn and had subsequently calved in 2012, 2015 and 2018! Peewee has always been a sociable and trusting dolfriend and current data suggests she has been spotted 238 times in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve. It’s always exciting to observe dolphins when they are just going about doing their own thing. Back in 2010 we observed Peewee foraging in Ponta Bay whilst in the company of her offspring and a nursery pod. She had caught herself a nice big reef fish and by the time Angie started recording, she had already broken it in three. What is most intriguing is that although the other dolphins were very aware of the fish, they left it alone for her… Pregnant bellies are pretty cool too! On xmas day in 2017, we encountered Peewee waaayyyy up north in Techobanine, she was in the company of Shadow - another local #dolphinsofponta. Both were heavy bellied and were close to calving. Shadow however spent the entire encounter whistling and whistling… Did you know that researchers suggest that pregnant females start whistling to their babes a few weeks before and after birth. This is said to be a vocal imprinting process whereby mum teachers her newbie her signature whistle, how cool is that! According to researcher Audra Ames; a similar phenomena can be found in humans, were babies are seen to respond to moms voice in utero during the last weeks. thank you for learning about our local dolfriends - please share our blog PLEASE DONATE TO OUR FUNDRAISER TO HELP DURING CV19 To find out how you can go about adopting one of our special finned friends please visit the site of the Society of Dolphin Conservation in Germany. Don’t forget to checkout our partners at the World Cetacean Alliance to find out more about our vision of A World where cetaceans are only found in the wild, are respected and fully protected!