Dolphin Encounter Update February 2010
15/03/10
Welcome to the Dolphin Encounter® update for February 2010.
This year we have experienced a typical El Nino summer, cold weather at the beginning and becoming warmer towards the end of summer. By mid February our weather began to settle down with some beautiful, much awaited sunshine and calmer seas. This weather pattern resulted in only 4 tours (not days) having to be cancelled, a great result for everyone.
It has been a fantastic month for marine life, a real wildlife extravaganza! The last few months we have watched the dusky calves develop; it is great to see the acrobatic prowess of these calves progress on a daily basis. The calves are now jumping with confidence even though it’s not necessarily the perfect display (we give them 10 out of 10 for effort!).
The great weather has been matched with amazing pods of dusky dolphins ranging from 100-900 dolphins. They have been located in areas such as Goose Bay, Oceanview and the Mikenui, all within an easy 30 minute travel time. The water temperature is slowly increasing and has been a comfortable 17-18ºC with swimmers choosing to abandon their hoods and even their jackets. We have also had the privaledge of witnessing dusky dolphins feeding on a bait-ball of fish, which is unusual as the dusky dolphins in Kaikoura are usually nocturnal feeders.
The Hector’s dolphins continue to astound us, with sightings of the one of the largest pods we have ever seen (in excess of 30 individuals) located near to the Spyglass. There have also been some sensational interactions between swimmers and Hector's as they race around to keep up with the duskies...... maybe the duskies have been teaching them a trick or two!
February has also seen the arrival of small groups of common dolphins amongst the duskies. With their bow-riding antics and great whistling communication they are always entertaining visitors.
Orca sightings have been more frequent this month. Early in the month we had a great look at a pod of orca which included a female known as Jigsaw. Jigsaw has only been photographed around the South Island. Usually, due to the transient nature of the orca, we only manage to see the orca on one trip, however this pod stayed in the area throughout the day and the 2 males accompanying Jigsaw were also seen throughout the area the following day. These orca were obviously in no rush to move on. We also had sightings of a male known as Moby with his pod travelling very close to the Kaikoura Peninsula.
And finally to finish off our wildlife extravaganza, a magnificent juvenile humpback whale ventured into the area during the middle of the month. He has been frequently sighted in and around the duskies and has been showing off with some impressive repetitive breaching.
The last official day of summer ended with a tsunami warning as a result of a huge earthquake in Chile. Civil Defence procedures were quickly put into place to assess the potential risk to the Kaikoura area. By 9am, the decision was made to cancel our 8.30am tour and to evacuate the building as a precaution. Some tidal surges were observed in the South Bay marina, but they were not significant enough to cause any concern.
Dolphin swimming in Kaikoura has also just been rated by Lonely Planet as one of the top 10 experiences in the world. So as summer draws to a close, we look forward to continuing to thrill our customers throughout autumn and winter.
So, till next time………………………
Translation in Japanese