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Published: February 14th 2005
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Dusky Dolphin
How'd ya like them apples? Woke up early this morning for another day at sea, it couldn't be as successful as yesterday, could it?
The weather forecast wasn't good but we were lucky, we were out at 8:15 and although it had been raining earlier it was clear and quite bright, partial cloud cover at times but good spotting conditions.
We were looking for Lagenorhnchus obscurus, or the Dusky Dolphin, Dusky Dolphins are found in coastal temperate waters of New Zealand, about 20 mins from the coast of Kaikoura.
This species is normally found in small pods of 6 to 15 animals, but larger groups of 20 to 500 animals, or massive aggregations of over 1,000, are also common, according to our guide.
They are the most highly social and acrobatic of dolphins, they leap, spin, somersault and often associate with other cetaceans, such as Common Dolphins and Southern Right Whales. Seabirds - including petrels, jaegers, albatrosses and terns - have also been observed associating with travelling pods.
We spotted loads of albatrosses yesterday when looking for whales so we thought the dolphins must be close by. After an hour searching we finally caught climpse of a few dolphins in the
distance, we sped along and withing minutes we were right next to them, but there was slighly more than 2 or 3 as the skipper originally thought, there were around 250, it was tremendous.
They were swimming under the boat, banging into it, jumping up beside it so you could almost touch them, they truly are amazing, they were all trying to out-do each other in the trick front and were all showing off, they knew we were there to watch them and the weren't going to dissapoint.
We watched them for ages, just mesmerized by their activity, but after about an hour it was time to go back, they swam along beside us for a while one in particular looked like he was waving goodbye, I swear, he was swimming along on the surface smacking his fin off the water, it was emotional I tell thee.
I got some great video clips and photo's of the dolphins so I hope you like them, one in particular is pretty amazing as it's so hard to get them when they jump out of the water as you don't know it's coming and it happens so quick, this one
Is that a shark?
No silly, it's a Dusky Dolphin.... even winked at me..........
After another highly enjoyable trip we were back in the hostel for lunch, the wind was picking up and by 1pm it was battering down, by 2 pm you couldn't see in front of your face and at 3pm somethign bizarre happened, an air raid singal started sounding.
I mean the real deal, the one that you hear on old films at the blitzkrieg and that, naturally my first reaction was that the Germans were coming, we were speaking to a wee Belgian boy last night and I knew there was something fishy about him, he kept asking about our national defence plan and that, then I remembered that we weren't in Blighty so my suspicion moved to the four Japanese guys playing some weird board game in the corner, however they looked as surprised as us, then I remembered that there chief weapon is surprise, or is that the Spanish?
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise....
Our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency....
Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....
Our
When zee seagull follows zee trawler
it iz becauze he theenks sardines will be thrown into zee sea four... no...
Amongst our weapons... Amongst our weaponry...
are such elements as fear, surprise...ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms - Oh damn!
Anyway Fiona knew it was to warn ships all along, in case they couldn't see the lighthouse in the fog, my idea was far more imaginative though, don't you think?
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anonymous
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Lucky Dog
You have no idea how lucky you are. We tried to go whale and dolphin watching twice in Kaikoura- once completely shut out due to weather and once teased with a boat ride out only to be turned back to land due to, you guessed it, weather. Oh yeah, and there was a boat full of sea sick passengers to boot. So, needless to say- we are very jealous and will be living vicariously through your pics:)