Dolphins!
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Wed 28 Nov 2012 09:16
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while at anchor in the beautiful harbour at
Tutukaka we were treated to the most wonderful display of jumping dolphins that
we have yet seen anywhere - for an hour, around our boat in just 5m of water
less than 50m from the shore. Amazing; and more amazing still, I managed to get
a couple of decent photos:
 This was a group of about ten Common Bottlenose
Dolphins Tursiops truncatus - exactly the same species can be seen
around the UK coast! These are big dolphins, getting to 4m in length; the size,
colour and shape enable easy identification. Behind the animal you can see two
marker posts for the entrance to the inner harbour - a couple of animals swam
right up the channel into the marina.
There were two
in particular clowning around, deliberately crashing into each other while in
the air. Here they are:
 Note how close the shore is - and also the clear
ecological zonation on the band of rocks along the coast, something which is
scarcely seen in the Tropics with their reduced tidal range.
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