Tuesday’s dolphin trip with Bimini Undersea was a beautiful one. We departed Bimini harbor shortly after 14:00 and were almost immediately greeted by bottlenose dolphins! At first we only saw one, then we saw a second…and soon we were up to five dolphins. They were a bit scattered and were not staying in one spot, so after 15 minutes of watching from the boat, we continued on. We stopped briefly at “Bimini Road” (aka “Atlantis”) for the happy guests to test out their snorkel gear and soon were looking across calm, Bimini blue seas in search of our Atlantic spotted friends. Before we had the pleasure of finding them though, we saw a tiger shark! As with previous sightings the shark was at least 10 feet long and spent quite a bit of time above mid-water, although this time it came so close to the surface, we were sure its fin would sneak out. As we said goodbye to this awesome ocean inhabitant, we saw dolphins leaping in the distance. They did not seem disturbed by the relatively nearby shark and were active at the surface. There was lots of contact and socio-sexual behavior. Under water, we were able to see most of the group as they swam by, after which un-named #70 (I think) and her female calf stuck around, giving everyone a close look. Back on the boat, we continued to watch the dolphin group, which included Split Jaw (#22), Prince William (#64), Tim (#69), Speedy (#78), un-named #75 and, possibly Buster (#04). As we headed back toward shore, the mom and calf pair rode the bow of the boat and surfed in the stern wake and a bit later, Tilly (#87) made an appearance doing the same thing!
More dolphin trips later this week (if the weather holds up),
Kel