Abusive fishing and fishing net threats

View from  right below

Sunny weather, perfect beach day. Noon. I spot a solitary fin sticking out of the water. A dolphin !
Kids in the kayak and out we go. Where is he ? A little later I spot him again, and another, and then another. This is a pod of about 7 adults.

We stop, they turn around, then wait for us ! They rest moveless right next to the kayak. If this is not an invitation...

With the group

Inside the water they come to meet me. Among the group is one with fishing cords or cord from a fishing net hanging out of his mouth. Since the revolution the poor fishermen with their dingies fish right infront of the coral reefs, blocking the passage of the dolphins with their nets. Many dolphins show signs of having struggled with nets. It makes you wish for a quick return to order in this country.

Here is the string, sticking right out of his mouth

We swim together for awhile and then, suddenly, through a hidden signal, they all at once speed off. I´m left behind a wall of fine bibbles. Looks like they go back to hunt.

I swim back to the boys.

Noon and afternoon session

This dolphin has a remarkable eye, white outside, very intense stare, almost human

Smiley

And another one

Here we go again. Beach! It's very hot today- sauna like, beyond 40 degrees Celsius. Any movement costs an incredible amount of energy. The sea is flat like a mirror under a hazy leaden sky. This is roasting time!

11 o clock - a big pod of dolphins appear from the south. They cut through the flat water surface and are easily visible. Light as a butterfly I jump on the kayak, taking the boys along. Shlick. Shlack. Shlick. Shlack... In no time we are moving along with the pod.
They move slowly and we see how one after the other appears below us watching us through the watersurface, which is like a windowglass today. I avoid making waves with the paddle to avoid breaking this transparence.
There is a young dolphin who is quite excited. He hits his tail onto the watersurface like we heard often in the past - the warning or assembly signal- but nobody reacts. Then he throws himself belly up out of the water repeatedly hitting the water with his tailfin. He is playing!
Finally I go in and leave Leo and Raphael behind. Visibility is pretty poor inside the water. But Im right inside the pod and we swim along.

Boys squirting the dolphins

Well, after a modest distance, maybe 100m I turn around to recover the boys and i row them back, whih comes as a huge, nearly unsurmountable effort. It is so hot one can hardly breathe and my arms feel like lead.

--

Second half of the day. The wind came up - a very hot and strong wind from inland. Everything starts flying away. Sand and dust everywhere. Eventually its the boys and me alone on the beach. I beg Charlotte to hang around for the next session but she wants to study.
The wind is vicious now, and it comes halfway inland. Wind channel conditions.
16h00 - the dolphins are back from the north. Hop, alone on the kayak, and the wind carries me effortless out to the dolphins who wait and swim towards me. There is the young adolescent again, belly up hitting his tail fin. The dolphins hop out of the water so that I can see their eye... they have a peek.
I lay the paddle into the kayak, take my gear and go in, pulling the kayak behind me with a string. And there we go ... right in the middle of the pod ! Below me is the this mornings dolphin with the white in his eye, he looks up at me, his stare is almost human.

This one had been caught in a net in the past

Late afternoon light - very foggy !

Great, we do about 50 m when I check the kayak. Where is the paddle ?!
%*#&$!!! It was washed into the water, I see it floating out into the sea. Shoot ! Session over !
I swim back and recover the paddle. Then its back on the kayak, the wind turns me around like a weathercock. Holy pipe ! Rowing back was like riding a fitness bycicle. You row and row but you are always on the same spot.

I finally make it anyway. Arms feeling like lead... again !

Saturday´s dip

Visibility in the water was extremely poor, just a few meters or so. It felt awkward in the water, not knowing what kind of life form you might encounter. Dolphins were visible only once they were right of front of me and would then disappear again in that green haze. The images are quite abstract, my head movement much more controlled.

This is the film of "The finless dolphin", the 4 p.m. expedition with Nino.

Friday´s dolphin video

I know, I know, the video is always nicer with some underlying classical music. But I chose not too because you can actually hear dolphin talk !
Right in the beginning there is a funny buzz. Then later on you can here clicking jaws, the dolphins all come together and then speed off. That is when they saw the pedal boat...
There are other dolphin sounds too, apart from me breathing. If the sound track disturbs you, just switch the sound off...

Enjoy !

The finless dolphin

This is the finless dolphin, he looks quite fearsome but is actually a very nice fellow !

It´s saturday. No dolphins for most of the day. Alberto, my friend and neighbor, informs me that he saw a huge group of dolphins pass at 7 a.m. in the morning. To see them at that time you have to have small children who wake you up. He has three. That is too early for me, besides, we are further away from the sea.

But then, at around 2 p.m.,  Charlotte spots them and we go out. When we get there I go in first. The water is like milk today. Visibility = 0 ! The dolphins pass for moments infront of our eyes, become visible and then quickly disappear in this thick foggy water. We only know they are there behind us because of their sonar. One hear very distinct clicking sounds. Amazing, if you think, that they can switch from visual navigation to sonar.

It´s a short session and we row back to the beach.

-

Later at around three another group passes. I take Valentina along. She is in her dress and won´t take a dip. So I go in. This is yesterday´s group. Here is the finless dolphin, we have been swimming together numerous times before, and boy, does he come close today! We are about 10 cm apart and swim along peacefully. I look at him and he gives me a wink. He looks at me with this warm affectionate look that is hard to describe. We know each other and this look says: Hello, friend !

I mean, look at this eye !

When dolphins look at you there is a real presence in this look. The adults have this relaxed look while the young ones have a frantic and exited one. And every dolphin eye is distinct and different. There is intelligence in that look, you can feel a personality.
We swim together over a long distance, side by side, the finless dolphin and me. He is so close, I wonder if I should touch him. The group is very tight, which is good, as visibility is still poor. We continue like this for about 10 minutes when suddenly I nearly hit a fin...
Some french family has caught up in their pedal boat and are now invading the water. The woman has moved herself right into my path and now the children jump in - plouff, plouff - the group panics and speeds away and are out of sight.

Too bad. Session over.

-

It´s around 4 p.m. This time it is my neighbor Sam who spots them and alerts me. Nino joins me and we row out into the sea. The tide washes in and there is quite some waves.Soon we are there, the dolphins right beside the kayak. Nino has never seen dolphins so close. It is true, it is amazing every time !

 I go in. I know this group. There is the young crazy one, and then the big dolphin with the white spots on his belly. Visibility is really very poor now. I´m in the dolphins sonar most of the time. They swim past me, turn around, and come back from behind again. Finally we find our rhythm and swim along together. I loose them out of sight twice, call them and they pick me up again. Wow !
Suddenly a boy is next to me in the water. The dolphins disappear... I see them again 50m further down the coast.

-

When I read last years entries it becomes apparent that our relationship with the dolphins has evolved. Last year we often had warning signs and short encounters with dolphins staying under the water for long periods and a couple of adults engaging to distract us. This year we travel with the group.
But dolphins are very picky and make a difference between humans that they know and those they don´t know. Trust has been established between them and us. I feel very privileged.

A great dolphin day

So many dolphins, you can´t see the water anymore !

Weekend ! Yesterday we celebrated my son Leo's 6st birthday party. 16 little hooligans needed taming. It was a hilarious party - Leo had a blast. I fell in bed half dead. We got to a late start in the morning. We arrived at the beach at 11h30. Mohammed, one of the guards, told me the dolphins just passed half an hour ago. Lots o them. Shoot.

Oh well, so I sat down and read my email, the news and checked out my Facebook. My wife watches the scene from afar. There sits Daniel with his iphone and infront of him the sea full of dolphins.
- Hey Daniel ! What's wrong ? -
- What ? -
- Look ! -
A second later I'm on the kayak and a few minutes later in the water.
It's about noon. They come from the north. The first pod is full of claves and mothers. They come close, take a closer look and move on. There is a second pod close behind. The same thing...

I went back into the kayak. I spot two dolphins, one of them is the one that got caught in a net, string till attached. The wound on his back looks ugly now. It looks like a bad infection. We moved together over a distance of ca 100m. He stayed right beneath my transparent kayak.

Then came a group of adults and they were amazing ! I threw myself into the sea, abandoning the boat.

Two young dolphins were over excited and zigzaged infront of me. The bigger ones swam slow enough to follow, we did circles, other people arrived. First a girl from the hotel, a child psychologist from France and later a family with their pedalo. He took pictures with his underwater camera. I'd be curious to see those pix.

I stayed with these dolphins in the water for about an hour, my kayak had floated out of sight. I had to swim back - exhausted and with first cramps in my legs I finally made it to the beach. The walk back was a drain.

Meanwhile my wife saw the empty kayak floating by. At first she didn't think much of it, but half an hour later she started to wonder. Then ideas of drowning husbands and Jacques in Deep Blue filled her head.
When I got back under our umbrella she greeted me:
- You jerk!-

-

Afternoon, about 4 p.m. - Dolphins! - calls Chacha and off we go. There are about 20 dolphins all in a row moving towards us when she goes in. She joins the pod and wiggles, swims and engages. Amazing to see her become part of them.

There were lot´s of dolphins today !

After awhile we swop and I go in. Everybody is here, the young playful ones, the couples and then there is the group of these old huge adults. One lacks a dorsal fin and the other one's is all squashed. We know each other and they allow me in. Then I move over to the couples. They can't let off each other, trying to corpulate whenever they can. I see they touch each others fin while the male places himself underneath the female upside down. She told me later that it was beautiful to see how cuddly these dolphins were.

Dolphin sex

A few seconds only for the jet ski in the right hand corner to catch up with us

Then I swap again with Charlotte. The bay is so full of dolphins, it is incredible. Now these groups are different from the ones we saw this noon. And half of the dolphins today seem to be new - they don´t seem to trust us and just swim past swiftly without engaging. At one point one of them blows a huge bubble under water - beautiful really, but it means as much as: back off ! I do...
Charlotte by contrast gets invited to play by one dolphin who blows lots of small bubbles. Then he blows a beautiful bubble ring !!

This is what playing bubbles look like!

Nice movement

During all the session there is vivid dolphin communication going on: whistles and clicking sounds. They talk to each other !

After swimming down 3 km off the coast the whole group turns around and they move back north again. Extraordinary ! We now follow the whole group back swimming with them. The group is very relaxed. They swim mostly on the surface, come up to breath frequently and go at slow speed. When dolphins get stressed they dive down and surface at much larger intervals. This happens for example when jet skis zoom in.

It is amazing when they turn around and swim straight at you

Look at these eyes !

A big male, his mouth green, invites to follow him

Look at that eye !

After swimming past our beach, the sun has slowly set and the visibility gets worse and worse and on top of that two jet skies zoom into the group. We do not want to be associated with them and decide to go back home. Enough for today. We are utterly exhausted but happy !

New mask and a fishing rod line

A new liquid mask camera is here to replace the one that drop into the deep blue two weeks ago.
It´s an upgrade to the previous one. Allows to dive down to 10 m and has "Video" function. I tried it out today, and what a surprise, it records sound under water (it´s me hooting, not the dolphins) ! And there seems to be an automatic stabilizer integrated - the images are much better now.

Last week we did see fins poking out of the water at two occasions but never met the dolphins.
There were two dolphins hunting at high speed.

Today before noon I see the fins again. The dolphins remain for a while in our bay without moving much. Two fishing boats are anchored at 100m from our beach. This would not have been possible before the revolution. Now anything is permitted.

I hush my 69 year old aunty Gaby into the kayak and row her out. Soon the two are beside us, right underneath the kayak.

The young dolphin swallowed a fishing rod line

My aunt takes the paddle and I go in. There are two dolphins, a mother and her child. The child has a fishing rod line hanging from his mouth, the string is approximately 5m long. I could have touched it, as it moved right in front of me, but I was afraid to cause him pain. Man made problems... what a shame !

They make two big circles around me and swim straight at me, turn around and move away. Visibility is very poor and I loose them out of sight. My aunt sees them lingering not far from me, I finally spot them but then loose them again.

This session was short, but we are happy to have been out there and know there are still two dolphins left. The rest of the pod has moved probably south for awhile. Let´s hope they come back soon...