Jumping Bottlenose Dolphins
by firmm Team
Blog written by Viktoria Aigner,volunteer, September 2015
Photos: firmm
On September 13th 2015 we started our first tour of the day at 11am. The Fly Blue was fully booked and the weather, like almost every day, was great. It was not too windy, and the temperatures were pleasant for mid- September. After more or less half an hour we found, already in Moroccan waters, a school of Bottlenose dolphins.
First they were swimming, as usually, quite fast next to our boat. After about 15 minutes I changed my position out of habit and went back from the front to the stern of the Fly Blue, locating myself in front of the railing. Suddenly I heard a loud splash in the water; I turned around and I saw two adult Bottlenose Dolphins jumping at least 2 or 3 meters high! At that moment I thought for the first time, what I would do if one of these marine mammals, out of sheer curiosity, would end up inside the boat, or rather on one of the passengers. Certainly that wouldn’t be beneficial for both sides, neither the animal, nor the person! Even Katharina gave the impression as though she hadn’t seen something like that too many times before. "They probably wanted to see who’s on the boat!” she said through the microphone, making some of the guests smile.
A few kilometres further away other dolphins were jumping.
This school of dolphins had, being the icing of the cake, a 2 or 3 day old baby with them, what made the tour on this day particularly memorable. There is nothing better than observing peaceful animals in freedom, and seeing them enjoying life.
After approximately half an hour we started searching for another species of animals. As usual, we found pretty quickly what we were looking for: a well-known school of Pilot Whales. These marine mammals are always a special experience. They are swimming calmly on the water surface and also come often very close to the boat, as they also did this Sunday. This gives the wonderful sensation that the animals are playing with us, and one gets the impression that they are not disturbed by the noise of the boat.
After another half an hour we had to go back to Tarifa, where we arrived in the port on time at 1pm.