Temptation takes you swiming with the dolphins in south australia

Dolphin Reports

DOLPHIN REPORTS ARCHIVE from 2003.

December '03

December started off very well with good swims, warm water and lots or Common and Bottlenose dolphins - until Sunday 21st when Adelaide had a 24hr Gail/Storm, which meant the next couple of weeks we had bad water visibility and on top of this the local dolphins haved moved further along the coast to stay away from the crazy holiday boat traffic. This means we have to go further and it takes a little longer to see dolphins on the cruise.

On Thursday 20th Dec we had a dolphin that was touching swimmers on the line - this is the first time this has happened and was an amazing experience for the swimmers.

Our favourite regular dolphin, Jade (a male dolphin) has been taking care of a young dolphin - approx. a 2 month old - and also a juvenile, this is very strange as we always see the younger dolphins staying close to their mother.

Hopefully January will see the holiday boat traffic subside and the dolphins moving back into their normal area.

November '03

The water has warmed up to about 18° and the visibility has been excellent.

There is still a lot of dolphin pods about and our average swim time this season is 54 minutes. This will slowly drop over the next couple of months as the dolphin harrassment season starts (summer holidays).

The seals are still around and we have spotted lots of penguins.

October '03

Dolphins, Dolphins and more dolphins. All trips since the start of the season have been excellent.

On the 17th October we recorded 83 bottlenose dolphins in 16 individual pods. This is the most bottlenose dolphins we have ever seen in one trip.

A few seals have finally moved into the area and we have spotted them resting regularly on both morning and evening cruises.

September '03

September's dolphin trips were a lot like August - strong winds and bad water visibility, although the water temperature has increased to 14° (still cold).

There is a new born baby in the Seacliff area - approx. 1 week old (4th Sept).

We have seen this baby on most trips in September and its mother, who we do not recognise from the previous season. However, she obviously has recognised us as she has already brought him/her (unknown at this stage) over to the swimmers on the 28th Sept swim.

Still no seals spotted in September.

August '03

The first dolphin cruise for the season has been better than expected. It was as if the dolphins missed us.

As the passengers were boarding Temptation, Jade and Mohawk swam under the boat and played in front of the hulls. When we left the marina we headed South and came across the local Seacliff pod, a group of 6 dolphins who swam with us for about two nautical miles.

The swimmers at that stage had blue lips and we decided to turn around and head North, back near Glenelg, Jade & Mohawk found us again and put on an amazing display for over 50 minutes. While this was happening another two pods came over - both pods I did not recognise.

This was one of our best dolphin trips as far as seeing dolphins goes.

The water in August is very cold and overall the water visibility was bad because of the rains and strong winds we have been having lately.

We did spot a lot of penguin around and mutton birds, but we didn't see any seals on this trip.