On Wednesday there was sunshine, clouds and a nice breeze as we started our boat trip with the Bimini Adventures. One of the guests asked if we might see spotted dolphins as she hasn’t had a close underwater view yet. We jokingly asked Captain Audley to round up a group of spotteds today. After an hour of searching we saw a single young bottlenose dolphin swim by, surface three times and then disappear. Captain Al saw five or six bottlenose dolphins to the east of us in the distance but we continued our search for spotted dolphins.
An hour later we quickly saw five spotted dolphins heading towards our boat and two of them began bow riding. When we entered the water we saw two spotted dolphins; one of them swam by briefly as the other adult with dorsal nicks circled around the snorkelers. The dolphins were more eager to bow ride and when the boat had stopped they lost interest in the snorkelers. We re-entered the water a second time, this time with four spotted dolphins including a calf/juvenile and possibly the same adult with the dorsal nicks that came close to us. This time the dolphins soon left us again in the murky water. We enjoyed a third, brief, underwater observation with two spotted dolphins including an adult that circled us and then swam away. As we returned to the boat Captain Al decided to keep moving as these dolphins weren’t sticking around for long.
We started to head back to shore because it was getting late and we soon sighted 12 spotted dolphins! We were all very excited to see them bow ride and express interest in us. As we entered the water more dolphins came closer totaling to 20 spotteds including un-named #102 that swam so close to the snorkelers. The dolphins were all grouped closely together as we approached them and then they separated into two groups making contacts with their pectoral fins and turning. We watched them as they swam to the side of the boat and toward the bow. It was an incredible sight with so many dolphins swimming by! Everyone had a smile on their face as we hopped back on the boat and headed to land.
Off in the distance a few minutes later there were possibly two bottlenose dolphins! It was too late to investigate as we continued home with great memories of today. It has been an amazing week here so far with so many sightings of bottlenose and spotted dolphins. We hope that our last boat trip with this group is full of dolphins tomorrow!
All that splashes,
Ellyne