6:30am Encountour
Hey, hey its Sunday and it’s the 8-8. A special day considered by many and for the Dolphin Team it ended up being a very spacial day too!
Our fist encountour of the day found calm and flat sea that greeted us as we pushed in. By 07:34 we had located a small mixed pod in Ponta Bay that were gently heading north.
Once in the water we were submerged in YIKES super lumo green waters. Lucky for us Elvis and - who we thought was Cholo (ended up be Theo) were keen for a bit of a visit and slowed to engage while the rest of the pod moved through. The boys were escorting Freya and Marilyn with their babes through the murky green waters.
Image: Above: Freya and her babe Below: Marilyn with some interesting rake marks (caused from other dolphins teeth).
Image: Left: Elvis Right: Theo - best mates
Theo who has undergone a dramatic dorsal fin change is often seen in the company of his mate Elvis, both these boys have shown aggression to swimmers in the water before, so it was with much relief that the encounter was seemingly one of joyous reunion after not seeing each other for a while.
Video from our Sunrise Encountour
9am Encountour
By the time our second Encountour was briefed and ready to go, the onshore had picked up slightly.
With eager children and parents on-board, we headed off in search…
Not long after we made it through the waves, a pod of bottlenose dolphins was observed again in Ponta Bay, this time the group numbered around 30 and were slightly offshore in some 15-20m of water.
Image: Little peeps listening well to instructions and slipping into the water with our wild dolphins!
Images: Local Dolphins of Ponta young and old came to visit
Behaviour was erratic with long dives as the dolphins were seemingly checking something out below - was it a ray, was it a shark, hard to say with such poor visibly. We were however engulfed in dolphins when we slipped in with close and tight circles swims as the friendly group of both young and old slowed to visit before bolting off into the greenness.
Video from our 9am encountour
11:30am Encountour
By midday the north easily was really puffing, making sightings of those small dorsal fins a little more difficult. On our northern in-shore run up towards Madaganine no bottlenose dolphins were sighted, however when making our way back south offshore we observed a pod of some 20 beautiful spotted dolphins in the company of two humpback whales who were slowly traveling south.
Video from our third encountour - whale watching at it's best in Mozambique.
It was a great day at sea and we are very thankful to all our guests who supported us on this day!
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Did you know you can adopt a Dolphin of Ponta through the Society for Dolphin Conservation - Germany www.delphinschutz.org. By adopting a family line you directly assist in research and conservation of the local dolphins!
