Charlotte´s dolphin film

Two dolphins

Dolphin frenzy

October 30th was a cold and windy day in Red Sea terms. Clouds covered the sun and the sea turned dark and unfriendly. Temperatures dropped and staying on the beach was less enjoyable.

We saw the dolphins pass at noon, far out in the open, following a fishing trawler. They seemed to be too far out to catch up with them so we let them pass and felt pangs of disillusionment. Charlotte left and returned shortly with her wetsuit. I got mine too.

Two hours later they pod could be seen again, far away. Actually I didn´t see anything at all but I believed Charlotte. We jumped into the Kayak, taking Leonard along, and out we rowed. We eventually caught up with the pod and they swam towards us, followed us swimming alongside right underneath our boat. Now and then a dolphin popped up right next to the boat to catch his breath. Once a dolphin baby jumped up out of the water, maybe a meter twenty long. He looked incredibly sweet!

After moving together for 200m I went in. Charlotte followed shortly hanging on to the Kayak so Leo would not drift away and another dolphin frenzy began. Two Young adults stayed with us to play for approximately half an hour. During the whole encounter they we heard their high frequency whistle, a sign that they were well at ease.

The two were really curious and came swimming towards us, an arms length away, then making a sharp turn to immediately turn back. We would follow them swim in circles and they would increase the speed more and more until we would get dizzy. Then We would fin one of the dolphins swim belly up right beneath, an invitation to touch - but always just centimeters too far away.

Unfortunately the light conditions were poor so most of my pictures are blurred. Fortunately Charlotte filmed a lot and the films came out really well. They give a good impression of what it feels like when you swim with wild dolphins.

The weight belt gives you neutral buoyancy and allows you stay down longer

Turning to swim belly up 

Swimming together in circles, faster and ever faster

"There they come...!"

Charlotte and the two dolphins

Hello there !

People had been watching us from the coast and eventually two kayaks with a dutch couple arrived. The dolphins did not feel at ease anymore and left shortly to join the rest of the pod who was making a big circle hunting fish.

The song of the dolphins

Tuning in with grandma´s old tube radio

This last June we often had the pleasure to spend our weekends with our friends Gaelle and Laurent. Both were quite intrigued by the presence of dolphins which lead to a rush to the kayak whenever they appeared. Gaelle usually won.

The day was getting late, the sun was slowly setting when we encountered a group of four adults. Now you need to know that dolphins, when they are in their pod, are not excessively interactive and might just allow you to accompany them, but they will never become really playful. When they are in a small bunch however, they sometimes let go of their inhibitions and let their curiosity roam freely.

So there we were, with these four big adult dolphins, swimming down all the length of the beach. Each time we slowed down, they would turn back, pick us up again, and continue. Until both Gaelle and I got very tired. It is a hell of an effort to follow dolphins. Their movement look so effortless while we struggle against the water.

After a good 20 minutes and approximately 400m I was completely out of breath and I pulled myself up into the kayak. We used a transparent kayak that day. It is wonderful to watch the dolphins watch you through the bottom of the device and follow their path zigzaging along, but this kind of kayak is treacherous as it can sink. Once it collects water it is at risk. So getting in and out in open sea is a challenge. I peeled myself back in and then watched Gaelle struggle back into the boat listening with amusement to her curses.  I realized then that our four dolphins were still out there circling the kayak. Strange I thought, it looks like they are calling... I looked at Gaelle, having had collected my breath in the meantime, and decided to give it another try, jumping back in...

Now what happened next was mind boggling. The four dolphins got very excited and swam circles around, under and over. A clear skinned dolphin swam belly up right underneath which is apparently an invitation to cuddle. We turned into one ball of excitement getting very close, but never touching. The most stunning thing was that they opened all the communication channels. The water was full of whistles and beeps very similar to when you take grandma´s old tube radio and change channels. The depth of frequencies was very large and the variations of sounds seemed like to come out of a science fiction movie. This is a language !

We did swim for another long stretch in complete euphoria until my forces were completely depleted.

I never experienced another encounter like this one since. Yes, sometimes our friends whistle or make sounds. We also hear the clicking of their sonar well before they come into sight. But never again did I hear this kind of whistling and singing.

A thing to get you hooked...

A sensation and other good news !

A sensational Chinese white dolphin in our bay !

Last weekend the beach was flooded with people and the sea full of jetskis and motorboats. There were no dolphins to be seen. I talked to my good friend Hamid who told me about the days 20 years ago when he would camp at the very beach we were standing at, before any buildings had gone up,  and how the sea was bustling with life. The coral reef was blooming and full of big fish.
Not even a generation later the coral reef is badly damaged, 70% of it is white skeletons and hardly any small fish can be seen, forget about big ones. How quickly this paradise is lost ! Who knows how much longer we will have dolphins in our bay ? At the pace we are going I´m afaid it will only be a few years before thy disappear as well... if there was any way of protecting the little that remains !

____

This weekend started slow. No dolphins yesterday.
And today then they finally reappeared.

The water was flat like a mirror and it was easy to see them hundreds of meters away. I gave the dolphin signal and my daughter Charlotte and I swung onto the kayak.

They swam slowly towards us, we could already make out the baby dolphins with their mothers, when the dreaded warning splash with a tail fin was given. Oh, hell, we were considered a risk. Who knows, the group had propably negative contact with humans and jetskies during the past weekend and now they were more prudent. We respect this and paddle smoothly parallel to the pod, at first just watching.

Charlotte watching the dolphins arrive

And there I saw the small dolphin from two weeks ago, the one that had got stuck in the fishing net. And the net was gone ! There was a greenish grayish scar tissue on the tail and dorsal fin. He looked fine - he survived the torment !! Great news !!

This is how it looks when the dolphin is right beside you

Circling around and around

Same dolphin

Visibility in the water was low today (Charotte´s pictures)

The group passing by

This shot has been taken from outside the water

Young dolphins come up for breath quite often

Charlotte in the background following a dolphin

When we met the group in the water they swam on swiftly. Again, as is their behavior pattern, some adults will come to distract you, while the mothers with their young ones swim into safety. Charlotte took some pictures from right inside the group. This time the one to distract us was swimming around in circles and at one time made a phantastic jump right over me. I felt like in free Willy when the wale jumped out of the basis. I had stretched out my hand and he was just within reach. Wow ! He then left to rejoin his group.

Geting real close

We followed the dolphins for another 400m down the coast.
Another great dolphin weekend. Now the week can begin !

The loner - an amazing sight !

I was already packing up when Charlotte gave another dolphin alert.
Quickly we sped into the kayak and out into the open. There he was... one dolphin all by himself !
We tried to meet up with him a couple of times but every time we went right he went left, when we went quick he went slow until we could observe him from close up. This dolphin was not like our normal bottlenose dolphins. This one looked very different !

First of all, his dorsal fin seemed malformed, like if the first bit had been halfed and the upper half had been moved backward. He also swam differently, slower and with a stronger arc, as if he dived straight down again.

The mouth is much longer  and there is no hump on the nose

Here the distinct dorsal fin is visible

I jumped in and we circled twice around each other. Wow, his nose looked very different and his eye was in a different place. What is this, I thought ?
I took some pictures and hoped that I did not miss.

Back home the pictures were downloaded from our mask. And my impression was confirmed. This was most certainly not a bottlenose dolphin. But what other dolphin can this be ? A common ? No ! We started a web search and came across the Amazonas river dolphin, but that is a sweet water dolphin !

Then finally Charlotte found a lead:
http://www.cms.int/reports/small_cetaceans/data/S_chinensis/s_chinensis.htm

 
What we witnessed is one af very few Chinese white dolphins (Sousa chinensis) ! Their population is shrinking fast and they are counted by the hundreds only !

We had become rare witness to one of the species that is on the verge of extinction - An almost religious feeling of awe !

October 2nd: The dolphin couple

Today the dolphins came quite late again. I missed the main bulk of the first group but encountered a curious couple.

Hello there !

Getting closer

It is quite amazing when dolphins swim towards you. The nose makes them look like a clown and they always have a smile on their face.
We swam all three of us incredibly close, maybe 50 cm apart. Then they slowly moved on.

Check out the dolphins reflection on the water surface !

They slowly leave

I had been wondering how the injured baby dolphin was doing but he was nowhere to be seen.

October 1st: The injured baby dolphin

Here we go again, another weekend has gone by. We had waited most of the day on friday and no dolphin in sight. We had nearly given up on seeing any when the group finally came. And what we saw really broke my heart.

Baby dolphin injured by a fishing net

The first dolphins to appear were a mother with her child. The baby dolphin had a rope attached to his caudal fin, with the fin badly cut. The tail fin was injured as well.
The whole group followed these two and were slowed down in the process.

Fishing nets in Egypt are often placed close to coral reefs by the crowd of poor fishermen. These are a real threat to dolphins. These nets lie often in dolphin passages and are hard to identify. Our small dolphin was lucky to escape, but he might die later of infection. There is nothing we can do.

I love this shot !

Hello dolphin

Baby dolphins swim protected underneath their mother

Right inside the pod