Please sign this petition against a Dolphinarium in Egypt !

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/16/stop-dolphin-captivity-in-Egypt/ Keep dolphins free ! Please sign our petition in cooperation with Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and Marine Connection to stop dolphinariums in Egypt. This cruel industry is the main reason, why massiv annual dolphin slaughters, especially in Japan, can still be financed. Four bottlenose dolphins from Japan have recently been discovered in a 9mx9m pool in Hurghada, where they are kept for quarantine before they will be sent to Sharm El Sheik's dolphinarium "Dolphina". The current living conditions are unacceptable! Not only the small size of the pool but also the water conditions are below any standard! We want to ban the profit-oriented industry of dolphinariums and therefore need your help. With your signature on our petition adressed to the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, you will help us putting an end to an industry, which never has been and never will be focused on the well-being of the dolphins. We kindly ask you to spread to word and raise awareness that dolphins have not been created to live in captivity! Once a dolphin is captured there is almost no chance to relocate it back into the ocean and it is doomed to a life of imprisonment. Please, find our petition here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/16/stop-dolphin-captivity-in-Egypt/ After signing the petition, please, go here http://www.care2.com/news/member/687071799/2421560 and click "note". This will make our campaign more visible! Thank you! For more information about dolphins in captivity, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYGcnNjh-J4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCx0ORuDZFE&feature=related or read our news http://www.hepca.com/red-sea-environment-news.aspx

Jet Ski owners:

1. Never drive your jet ski at high speed into the pod !
2. If you want to see dolphins then approach the dolphins at very slow speed
3. Don´t force yourself onto the pod, dolphins are curious, let them come to you !
4. Don´t jump into the water on top of a dolphin. Jump in before and let him reach you.
5. Respect the pod. If dolphins feel threatened they leave the area !

Have you ever been swimming out in the ocean with a jet ski zooming past close by ? Now if you have, do you remember how you felt yourself (vulnerable) and towards the driver of the engine (#*%§!!!).

Dolphins usually travel slowly down the coast line, coming up every couple of minutes or so to catch a breath of air. When hunting, dolphins can stay up to 15 minutes without surfacing, going into apne. When dolphins surface they are quite vulnerable to boats and jet skis. And they panic just as we do when something moves at them at high speed.

One of the dolphins in our pod has a dorsal fin missing. It looks very much like this is a result of an encounter with a boat.

One of the owners of a jet ski of our bay told me he was playing with the dolphins by zooming into the pod  and drawing circles. He would rush in and out at high speed. "They like this", he told me. He was one of three jet skis that created havoc that day (Sharm El Nisim 2009). We had been swimming with the group full of young ones when these guys arrived. The dolphins hit their caudul fins on the water surface, alerting the pod, and then made a U-turn ! Without surfacing much they quickly fled the area. They did not return the next day, and a week later, when we met them they looked at us in silence and swam on sulkily.

Humans! It took a long time to reestablish the trust.

Out in the sea: 24.9.2010

When the pod passed today they were out there in the open hunting in deep waters. No need to go there, there will be no interaction. But much later in the afternoon, the sea was flat like a mirror, Charlotte sees them. I don´t.
"You see them ? Let´s go!" and off we row. We row and row and, by the way, I can´t see anything. And we row... until we are far out there, close to the trawlers in the open deep sea. And yes indeed, there we meet three beautiful adult males. Big dolphins. And we are three miles away from the beach, everything on the coast looks tiny. How did Charlotte see them at that distance, I wonder. And we will have to get back eventually and night will be falling soon.
Now we know where the males spent their days. The name for a bottle nose dolphin is french is dauphin des larges, dolphins that swim out in the open. Rowing the way back was exhausting. My arms feel like butter. Then night falls.

Next day: September 18th

Wow, cool pictures and a cool session with the baby dolphin pod. We were accepted in and swam down the length of the beach. The mothers trust us enough to let their young ones follow their curiosity. Mother and kid always swim closely together, touching each other. Dolphins cuddle a lot. Then the small ones swim from under mom´s belly, where they usually hide and turn half way to have a better peek at us. Sometimes they leave mom and swim right around us.  At others the baby dolphin swims straight up.

Mother dolphin with her baby dolphin

Peeking up from below his mother 

The young ones are always looked after thoroughly

Female dolphin checking us out

Dolphins

Septermber 17th, 2010

Another weekend, another dolphin session.
The pod has gotten so used to us that we are even allowed to follow and swim with the young dolphins and their mothers. They know we pose no threat so there is no more warning tail splashing.

We swam down the whole of the bay. The session lasted around 20 min.

Here they come, look at this baby dolphin

Baby dolphin looking up from below his mother

Look how curious he is...

Dolphins with Pia

August 21st, 2010

Pia on a visit from Italy. First the big group of dolphins passes, and later a group of four very young individuals. Four means play... they stayed for at least 45 min circling us, going and returning, and checking us out. During our encounter the four dolphins were much at ease. They communicated between each other with whistling sounds which they usually stop when intruders are around. At the end the adults of the pod pick them up and they leave.

Later that afternoon, after I had pulled in the Kayak and cleaned up the beach they returned again, and waited infront our stretch of beach for us. 

Here are the pictures:

Pia diving

Shot from below, looks like he is flying

Watching you watching me..

Curiosity...

Another shot from below upwards

All four of them

How it all got started

Charlotte jumping in

Is that a dolphin or a shark ?

See the snorkel right behind the tail fins

Charlotte as interested in them than they in her !

Shortly after moving into our weekend home far away from the noise and stress of Cairo we encountered hearsay about the dolphins that live in our bay. It took us a couple of weeks and a boat ride on our friend Cherif´s motorboat to witness their presence with our own eyes.

We encountered our first dolphin pod out at sea. There was a group of approximately 10 dolphins that swam alongside the whaler with dolphins looking up to us through the transparent surface of the water.
There was no doubt. They were checking us out !

Later we realized that the pod passed pretty much daily at different times right in front our coral reef.
The reef sits right between the white sand beach and the open sea. The dolphins are there but most of the time we simply missed them. The group comes up to breathe in different intervals. A group of adults often only every 5 minutes, and a pod with young ones avery minute or so. So they may surface only every 300 m. Anyway...

One day, when my daughter Charlotte and I were happily paddling away on the kayak we encountered the pod, right there, in the open ! It looked like encountering an army of sharks with their fins coming in and out of the water. And they were coming right at us !

My daughter, 12 then, got quite excited and wanted to jump in. Well, I didn´t know how to feel about this. Dolphins are big beings - between 2-3m long. She kept on begging and my wife was not there so I said, well, ok, but stay close to the kayak so that I can pull you in if they become hostile.
So in she jumped, wearing a underwater camera mask, that our friend Alaa had given to us.
When I saw the pictures I was hooked....

The dolphin pod

There are three pods passing our bay every day. A pod is composed of around 10 dolphins. The first group are usually females with their babies. Half an hour later passes a group of adults, and later  you might find a small group of 4 individuals.

The first dolphin pod

The first group is very shy. They do not like intruders at all. When humans approach these groups the following happens: A dolphin gives a warning sign by hitting with the tail onto the surface of the water. It creates quite a loud splash and is quite audible. Two or three adults come forward and move between the alien and the group. These dolphins are friendly and curious and swim around you once or twice while the group moves quickly away. As soon as the group is back in calmer waters the two protectors join up with the rest of the group.

The next group is a group of adults. These can be very playful, but only after having had a good meal. Otherwise they just rush past.

Then there is the group of four. They seem to disconnect from the second group. When one meets these it can be a lot of fun. Without the young ones and the peer pressure dolphins can really soften up and become very curious and playful.

Now it happens that other pods come and all the pods create a mega pod. These travel down large stretches of coast and it so happens that one doesn´t see them fore a few days. During these meetings the dolphins get into a frenzy. The water vibrates from their energy. They jump, race, and hunt together. And fight for females. This is a mating moment.