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.