Where’d they go?

Though a bit calmer today than the past few days, we still had a hard time finding dolphins. Came across some bottlenose that weren't too interested in us at all, then a mother-calf pair who stuck around the boat for a bit but really wanted nothing to do with the people.

Just as we were heading home, there they were, a big group of adults chasing a school of fish mercilessly. Dives and jumps and such, and very focused on the fish, not on us, not even on the boat. We attempted the enter the water with them but they just followed the fish. A half an hour later, the Soggy Bottom Girls showed up, ready to play and we were able to swim with them for about 15 minutes, the adults still in the area feeding, but not in our sight. We left them due to lack of daylight, but it was apparent their interest in us was dwindling.

Still calm the next day, we found dolphins two hours into the trip, but they obviously didn't want to swim with us. We kept them in our view and on our bow for a while but lost sight of them after 20 minutes. We decided to have a little swim break and were briefly joined by one lone Stenella. We got out and back in the water a few other times, attempting encounters with no luck. However, minutes later, we saw one of the most incredible sights of the summer. There must have been at least 30 animals in an area spread over a half mile in every direction around the boat, all feeding, leaping, splashing and chasing a presumably large group of fish. Juliet and an adult were chasing fish right off the bow and when the adult caught it she swam by with the fish in her mouth as if to show us what she'd done. The two of them then proceeded to throw the fish in the air, let it go and chase it again, like a cat would with a mouse. Rather entertaining for us, and I'm sure for them as well. We continued to watch all the feeding from the boat for a half hour or so. All of a sudden, the splashing stopped and we got in the water to see some rather sleepy-looking dolphins traveling south, spotted and bottlenose, not really into us. The bottlenose stuck around a bit longer than the spotteds, which was a bit of a role reversal, but not for long. We headed home, quite overwhelmed by all the dolphins we saw at once.

Only a few trips left before we head home!

Dolphinettes