In an effort to keep you up-to-date on the dolphins, seals, whales and birds in the Marlborough Sounds, we've posted the following to let you know what we've been seeing and what's been happening during our tours. Keep in mind that what we see now, may not be what you'll see on your tour - wildlife is wild after all.
January 27, 2010 (Bottlenose Dolphins, Hector's Dolphins, Orca & Fur Seals)
Summer is here and the weather has come right! Mid-summer is always a mixed bag as to what we see in the Sounds which always makes things unpredictable and exciting! The majority of daily sightings consist of New Zealand's own Hector's dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. Hector's frequent the Sounds during the summer and are usually at their social best this time of year when small groups of 5 or so come together to mate. We've recently had an amazing experience with a group of 30 Hector's - which is a lot for Hector's dolphins! We've also been seeing a small group of bottlenose dolphins becoming regular sightings on the morning swim tour. Normally, they move in a large group of 50 to 80 dolphins in and out of the Sound throughout the year, but this group of 2 has been hanging out on their own choosing to cruise around the QC Sound on the bow waves of boats for a bit of a ride and a laugh and have taken a likeing to our swimmers. Nicknamed Bubbles and Squeak (clever right?) for the way Bubbles often goes below the swimmers and sits vertical in the water and blows air bubbles up towards the swimmers at the surface and Squeak because of their high-pitched whistles they use to communicate to each other. These two have been incredible to swim with nearly every time we encounter them and were recently swimming amongst holiday makers at Ship Cove (see picture below). Bubbles and Squeak were part of an awesome group of 10 dolphins that spent November and December with us, but that group took off on 24 December when a group of orca came in to the QC Sound. These two will likely wait around for our main group of 60 bottlenose dolphins that usually re-enter the QC Sound in February and spend the majority of the summer, autumn and winter with us.
We're also encountering a rather large number of visits from orca (killer whales) this past month with 4 different groups being seen in the Queen Charlotte Sound. Orcas come in to feed on stingrays and our latest group brought a 5 ft long thresher shark (harmless to people really) right over to the boat to show off (see the picture below)! Although we love to see the orca, they can make it tricky on those days they're in to get a good swim in as the bottlenose tend to be a bit flighty and stay well clear of the orcas. It usually takes a few days for them to settle back down.
Our male New Zealand fur seals are also starting to re-appear in the QC Sound after spending time away at the breeding colony on Stephans Island.
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The building of our new office/retail shop is only a few weeks away! Once completed, we'll be set up with new changerooms, retail space and a main office area - all of which will add even more to our award-winning tourism experience. The Marlborough Sounds are an incredible place and we at Dolphin Watch Ecotours are always proud to show it off to our guests.
Catch up with you next month......
