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You are here: Home - Hawaii Travel Ezine - #65 Swimming w/ dolphins
(Fair Wind Boat Tour to Kealakekua Bay, Part 2)01. Swimming with the Dolphins in Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, HawaiiThis is a continuation of issue #64, Fair Wind Boat Tour to Kealakekua Bay, Part 1.When I left off in that issue, lunch had just finished and we were getting back in the water when a pod of dolphins appeared in the bay and started heading for us. I have been on the Fair Wind boat trip several times, and have seen dolphins on at least half of those trips but this is the first time the dolphins have ever purposely come and swam among us. They knew we were there, and they came straight to us. It was amazing. I believe the reason they did this was because of the babies. The pod was not too big - no more than about 20 dolphins, but they did have two babies with them. It appeared to me that the adults were telling the babies: "Now you see these white things with really long flippers? They are people, and they are pretty harmless as long as you don't get too close. They are really slow so you can get within a few feet of them but still be safe. They can't swim without making a lot of racket so you'll always hear them coming. - Oh, and when they leave, they get that big boat over there going really fast and you can surf on its front wave; it's quite fun. Now, if you want to hear them make funny noises, go do the jump we taught you yesterday right next to that guy."
So, there were at least 40 of us in the water, and the pod came in and swam right underneath us. We could see the babies swimming right next to their mothers - they stayed so close it looked like they were connected. The pod continued to swim back and forth underneath us, sometimes only two to three feet below our bodies and one of them came so close to my husband that he could have touched it if he would have reached out his hand. They swam back and forth a few times and then the little ones started to jump. It was absolutely adorable. The babies weren't very good at jumping yet; they couldn't get their entire bodies out of the water and they couldn't do the complete spin. It was like watching a human baby learn to walk. They jumped a few times, quite close to people actually; close enough that the people got hit by the splash their little bodies made - and yes we all made funny noises. We laughed, we oohed and ahhed, and we even clapped. We were quite silly, but you have to understand, it was truly amazing. The dolphins smam back and forth under us for about 15 minutes total, and then they made their way out into the bay a bit farther. It was a good thing they left, or most of us would not have gotten out of the water when the captain rang the all-aboard bell.
When everyone was finally aboard and we started leaving the bay, the dolphins came back. I knew what they were going to do and got down to the front of the boat quickly. Four of them broke off from the group and came over to bow-ride the pressure wave generated by the boat's forward motion. Again, I got the feeling they were teaching the babies because the four that came (all adults) did not stay long. Usually the dolphins will bow-ride for a few minutes but these broke off after less than a minute. I got the feeling they were going back to tell the babies, "Ok, next boat that comes by, you come in and do just what we did, but don't worry, we'll be there beside you." So, whenever you are in the ocean in Hawaii, be ready; you may see sea turtles, whales, or even dolphins up close. Don't harass them, follow them or try to touch them (illegal and possibly dangerous) but do be aware that they may try to come to you.
I'm not exactly sure what caused the different color water in the pictures, but it is probably related to the depth of the water and whether my husband was facing towards the sun or away from it when he took these pictures over about a 15 minute time span. Lisa
omalu - (oh mah loo) - cloudy, overcast |
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