Ok - it’s cold, no sorry it’s flippen freeeeezing! That was ok though as we had dolphin and whale excitement running through our veins. As the sun was coming up, we met up with our small group of dolphin seekers and together with our volunteers Laure and Marina; briefed and kitted up everyone before heading off into the chilly blue yonder.
Our first encounter of the day found us in the company of only three dolphins; two adult females and a juvenile. The in-water encounter was just short of 20 minutes and included a profound bout of conscious interaction with the pregnant ladies who spent time between engaging at the surface with us, before repeatedly diving to spend time on the sand, rubbing their swollen bellies and seemingly listening and waiting. Possibly there was another pod incoming that we could not see or maybe they were finding safety in the bay until some unforeseen threat moved off...
Images: Above - female bottlenose dolphin with juvenile. Below - Female with deep rake marks (caused from other dolphins teeth; see how nicely evenly placed the rakes are)!
The little juvenile was keen to spend time with Laure circle swimming, and given that this is Laure’s third visit, one must only assume that this little kid recognised her from before! All in all the encounter was relatedly quite with mostly echolocating and a little whistling.
Image: Our volunteers getting up-close to the wild Dolphins of Ponta!
Our second tour of the day left at just after 1pm which is pretty late for the Dolphin Boat. As a general rule we prefer to undertake our Encountours at sunrise when conditions are normally calmer and dolphins more plentiful in the coastal shallows. However given the great weather of the day we decided to accommodate our Maputo peeps as we were pretty confident we would be able to show them some humpback whales given resent sightings with days of breaches and blows being seen dotted on the horizon!
Our inshore run up north found no dolphin activity, however offshore we spotted a number of whales with one particular group offering up some breaches and pec slaps! As can be seen in the video below. We also took the time to pick up some rubbish, one of which a plastic tub with a little fish who had made it home for a while.
Returning home, it was a great day at sea for the Dolphin Team who are grateful for the support of our patrons, volunteers, dolfriends, the mighty humpback whale and of course the weather gods who smiled favourably on us this day!
Images: Left - Mitch showing volunteer Marina the fish and it's home! Right - A very swollen bottlenose belly.
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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!