December 15, 2016

Swarms of Dolphins

One last blog post for 2016 as Kathryn and I head off on our first big adventure in far too long.
This summer we made our annual visit to Telegraph Cove and had a delightful encounter with a HUGE pod of pacific white-sided dolphins. Long-time readers may recall (with some prompting) that we have had pretty amazing sightings of these animals in the past, but this time put all others to shame.
 There were an estimated 500 or so individuals (common rule of thumb is there are 4-5 animals underwater for every one you can see at the surface at a given time) and they were VERY interested in our boat and playing in our wake. Large groups of them were playing at the front and back and a few Dahl's porpoises even joined in the fun to race past them and shame everyone with their speed.
 Not only were they following along and playing, but they were constantly leaping out of the water so close to our boat that I actually had to switch cameras because my telephoto lens was too tight to capture the whole animal. They followed along with us for a good 10-15 minutes before flocking off to their next point of interest.
Big thanks again to our dear friend Roger for taking us out and sharing the incredible beauty of his part of the island with us. If you're ever in the Telegraph Cove area, we strongly recommend an outing with his company Stubb's Island Whale Watching.

Happy New Year and we'll have lots of new photos and stories to share in 2017!