Dolphins!

We saw more Dolphins this morning! This time they were Bottlenose Dolphins, like Flipper. They're much bigger than Spotted Dolphins, so much so that I questioned whether or not they were Porpoises at first.

Bottlenose Dolphins

The book says they can grow as big as 13 feet! You can tell just how big they really are from the picture below. There were three total, and my guess is that they were all big enough to be males. They sneaked up on us, circled around, looked directly into my eyes, and swam off. At least, that's what we saw them do. They were probably watching us for longer because Jessee, who was on the surface, got to watch them for several minutes. They swam within feet of Dave, one of the divers down with us, and he didn't even notice - you can see him looking at his dive computer in the picture.

Captain Oblivious

Approaching Cautiously

Going up for air.

It's so exciting to see animals like this. They're not all that common in this area (I'm not sure why), so it's really special when we get to see them. It's really different to see mammals than it is to see sharks and other fish. You can tell there's not much "going on upstairs" with fish, but Dolphins are completely different. The way they look at you and move around you really shows their intelligence. They're intriguing to watch (a lot like monkeys, except wetter).

Tonight we're planning to watch The Cove, a documentary about the Japanese Dolphin Slaughter. It sounds interesting, but perhaps not as uplifting as seeing them today was.

Checking Me Out

Jessee poised at the ready in case they returned.