Dolphin Encounter Update December 2011

13/01/12

Welcome to the Dolphin Encounter® update for December 2011, the last update for the year.

Once more we’ve experienced intermittent summer weather with hot calm sunny days one day, followed by rain and wind the next. The rain doesn’t impact on our tours as the swimmers are well prepared in thick wetsuits and will be getting wet when they jump into the water. To the dolphins, it’s just another day.

The dolphins have been mainly located in areas such as Goose Bay and Black Rock, both within a short 25 minute journey away. Dolphin numbers have been varied in pods ranging from 100-600 individuals.

The dusky calves are beginning to grow older and bolder and are putting on some fantastic acrobatics; well at least they are trying too!! Some calves appear to be mastering the technique well, whilst others are leaping out of the water merely to do a huge belly flop, attempting the leap again and again until they simply run out of energy. This always delights the passengers with lots of excitement on board.

We reported recently on a dusky dolphin with a “hitchhiking” octopus attached to it and having never witnessed anything like it before, we were amazed to see the exact same scenario this month. This time though swimmers had an amazing view of this large reddish brown octopus clinging onto the back of a dolphin, whilst other dolphins were frantically chasing them both. We will never know why this octopus latched onto the dusky or whether the dolphins were playing with it, rather perplexing!

We always say we never know what to expect on each of our tours, due to the abundant food supply in Kaikoura and this month we’ve been astounded to see huge swarms of small krill like creatures, with the numbers being so large that they created a “red tide” throughout the ocean. These creatures are larvae of the squat lobster and are seen in swarms before settling to the sea floor. They provide an abundant food supply for fish, seabirds and baleen whales like humpback whales.

The diversity of marine this month has been prolific and quite unusual. Other species of interest this month include humpback whales, orca and Arnoux’s beaked whales. Our humpback whale sightings are frequent during winter as the whales are migrating northwards towards the tropics but it’s unusual to see them in summer months. The humpbacks we’ve seen have always been accompanied by the dusky dolphins excited by the presence of their larger cousins that must be too hard to resist playing with them. One humpback seemed to enjoy their presence being located right in amongst a pod of 300-400 duskies. This individual spent its time rolling on its back slapping those huge pectoral fins onto the ocean much to the amazement of those onboard.

 We had a rare sighting of a pod of Arnoux’s beaked whales. These unusual looking whales have a characteristic long beak and can grow up to 10m long. Very little is known about the ecology of beaked whales and most information has been gathered from stranded individuals. It is known that their preferred habitat is deep water and continental slopes so Kaikoura would be the perfect location for them to visit.

Our final Christmas present was a visit from a pod of orca that delighted passengers by playing with the boat giving them a real up close and personal look at a wild orca. For most people, if they have seen orca before, then it may have  been in a captive environment, and so seeing them in their natural environment socialising and feeding is a memorable experience never to be forgotten.

As you may or may not know, the owners of Encounter Kaikoura created the Encounter Foundation in November 2009. The Foundation has supported a number of projects both in Kaikoura and futher afield and recently (November 2011) contributed just over $1300.00 toward new equipment for the local Trees for Travellers project. Visit the page on our website for more information on the Foundation. 

 So, that’s all our news for now. We wish everyone a very safe and prosperous 2012.

Till next time..........

Tour Photos

» Dolphin Swimming Dolphin Swimming © Dolphin Encounter Swimming with dusky dolphins.	» Female Orca Female Orca © Dolphin Encounter	» Orca Pod Orca Pod © Dolphin Encounter
» Beaked Whales Beaked Whales © Dolphin Encounter Arnoux beaked whales are very infrequently seen and even less frequently photographed.	» Arnoux Beaked Whales Arnoux Beaked Whales © Dolphin Encounter	» Boat and Orca Boat and Orca © Dolphin Encounter On this occasion, the orca came very close to our boats, much to the delight of the excited passengers.
» Melanistic Dolphin Melanistic Dolphin © Dolphin Encounter Melanism is where there is an undue development of dark pigment in the colouration. This dusky is an example of one such phenomena.	» Humpback Humpback © Dolphin Encounter A humpback whale doing pec (pectoral fin) slaps.	» Tree Planting Tree Planting © Dolphin Encounter The first tree to be planted in stage one of the South Bay Restoration Project. From left, Doug Hockey, Ron Gillespie Lynette Buurman (Encounter Foundation) Winston Gray (Kaikoura mayor), Jamie. Kneeling in front from left, Ian Bradshaw and Dennis Buurman (Encounter Foundation) and Kevin Heays.

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