Hawai’i Big Island Trip Day13-18 Part2

We swam with dolphins 5 times. This is amazing and unforgettable experience.

 

Hawaiian spinner dolphins are nocturnal. They travel deep in the see at night to feed. In the daytime, Hawaiian spinner come to bay to rest. Spinner dolphins live all over the world in the warm area, but ones only in Hawai’i and northern Brazil come to shallow water area to rest. When they are resting, half or the brain is sleeping and the other is awake.

A pod of dolphins

We camped on the beach in the local park, and every morning around 8:30 a.m., a pod of dolphins came to the bay. The sign says that it is not allowed to share the location on social media: so it is a secret place. As soon as they come, we jumped in the ocean and saw dolphins. Usually a school of dolphins consists of 10-20. In the group, 3-5 dolphins really synchronize to swim and come to the surface to breath. They repeat going under then going up to surface to breath. Sometimes they jump in the air. They twist their bodies. Usually dolphins stay in for the entire morning in the same bay and circling around. I was able to observe them for several hours each day just by floating on the surface. Also, it is the right thing to do: not to disturb their biological behaviors by chasing with diving.

Sunshine on the dolphins

They are not scared of human if you just float, and by doing that, they come really close to you to breath on the surface. Looking at three dolphins just in front of me in a beautifully synchronizing movement is extremely exciting. They are so close and looks like enjoying swimming near me. Dolphins are social animals and I could tell that they communicate each other. One of the days, the dolphins are very playful and I saw they were swimming together by chasing each other and jumping a lot. That was a sunny day after a couples of day of cloudy days, so they might be happy. On that day dolphins are shiny on reflect of sun. It was beautiful. I am so grateful that I was able to have such joyful, exciting, and precious dolphin experience. Dolphins are definitely the highlight of this Big Island trip.