dolphin swim

our staff christmas party was a bit unusual this year, but it turned out to be amazing: we went swimming with dolphins.

when my boss first suggested it, we were all a bit skeptical. but we decided that we should just make the most of it and enjoy a morning out on the ocean. so at 6:45am on a sunday (ugh), i met with my colleagues and we carpooled 35 mins down to rockingham to start our adventure.

there were probably 25 people on the boat, 15 of whom came with my physio clinic. the guides prepped us all as we sat at the jetty, informed us of the procedure and safety and geared us up in our wetsuits and snorkels. there are some pretty strict rules when it comes to swimming with wild dolphins. first, you try to make as little splash and noise as possible, otherwise you'll startle them. and second, you can't touch them at all because the oil from our hands breaks down their skin and can cause diseases and make them susceptible to skin cancer. (dolphins in captivity react the same to contact, but no one seems to care). they also told us not to *ahem* fear sharks because all of the guides wear electronic devices around their ankles with emit a frequency that sharks don't like...and keep them 8m away. personally, 8m is not nearly enough distance between me and a shark but having been told that there had never been a shark sighting in 21 years, i felt safe (though i was later informed by my boss that the first sighting had occurred the week before, with an 8ft white pointer swimming below the group! luckily, none of us knew this at the time, or our tour would have been cut short... not getting in the water short!)

once we were all ready, we jetted off in search of the dolphins. and dolphins we found! it didn't take long before we found the party of dolphins (yes, party). we were all wearing coloured belts to assign us to a group and when the guide called our your colour, you had to be ready to slip into the water as quickly as possible. my group was in the first round of dolphin viewing and i was right at the front, dangling from my guides waist-belt as she steered our human-chain along.

suddenly...dolphins! all around. playing. singing. blowing. following a huge sting ray (apparently it musters up food for them). too cool. they came so close to me at one point, i had to move my hands out of the way so as not to touch them. though it's a bit frightening to have a dolphin careening towards you, i was pretty certain it didn't actually want to touch me either! we got pulled back into the boat as the dolphins swam away. it was then our turn to watch all of this from the deck. we did 3 more in/out of the water and i would definitely say that my group had some of the best sightings, including seeing the 8 week old calf. too cute!

by the end, it was obvious that the dolphins had enough human interaction for the day as they kept swimming away when the boat pulled up. so the guide told us that they would speed up the boat and make some wake for the dolphins, because sometimes they'll come and play. and boy did they ever! my colleague has some great footage (which i'll post soon) of the party jumping and splashing behind us. it was amazing!

a bit of dolphin knowledge:

-the most common dolphin that humans interact with is a bottlenose dolphin. they seem to be the most interested in humans, boats and other foreign things.
-they can travel at speeds of 35kmph
-they're called parties because dolphins are, uhm, promiscuous, unlike other whales who usually mate for life.
-they eat about 15kg of food per day, which takes a freakin' long time for them to rustle up
-upon reaching maturity, male dolphins are only interested in 3 things: food, fun and sex (shocking, no?)
-female dolphins are either pregnant or weaning for their entire adult life! (ugh)
-dolphins in captivity lose nearly 60% of their lifespan! a typical captive dolphin will live to 15 years old, but they will live to 40-60 years in the wild.

www.dolphins.com.au for more info!

all in all, the dolphin tour was awesome!
xo

pics and video to come, courtesy of my colleagues