Our morning trip is aborted due to rough seas and bad lightning. We turn back after getting part way into the dolphin grounds.
Funny, to me, that they call them the dolphin “grounds.” I guess there can be “ground” underwater. Since it is the area where they see them most often and it is a shallow sandy bank; I guess it works.
In our few weeks here, we’ve come to appreciate how Bimini Undersea runs their wild dolphin swim trips. They believe strongly in consistency and so they run the same course, at the same speed, looking for dolphins at about the same time each day they go out. They are very respectful of the animals and their decision to put people in the water is based on the dolphin’s behavior. If they swim off quickly when we slow the boat down, we obviously don’t get in. If they appear 100 meters away from that last sighting, we may go over to them once more, but if they vanish again, we won’t continue following that group. Bill and Nowdla (and their staff — Melanie, Audley and Christine) are very careful not to harass the dolphins by following too often or too close, if that group seems unwilling or uninterested in interacting with people.
On the afternoon trip, we find 14 spotted dolphins. Three small subgroups swim about for about 40 minutes, but only 6 interact with us.
TJ & Susan