Temptation takes you swiming with the dolphins in south australia

Dolphin Reports Archive 2004

DOLPHIN REPORT to end of December, 2004

December was a good month for dolphin swims, although there were less dolphins around compared to the last 3 months but the conditions in general were excellent.

We have averaged 38 dolphins per trip in December and the swim time has dropped slightly to 48 minutes average.

Mid December a young lad, while out with his mates from one of Adelaide’s beaches, was taken by a shark. Although this is the first shark attack on Adelaide beaches for 78 years, it has made us look a lot closer at the way we conduct our dolphin cruises. Now when our swimmers are in the water, we trail the marine “Shark Shield” pod which sends out an electric pulse – this electric pulse affects the electric signal on the body of sharks but does not affect any other marine animal. Early basic trials look like the dolphins are not concerned by the pod.

On a lighter note, Jade and Mohawk (two of our regulars) have surfaced again after not seeing them all season. They are now back and entertaining the swimmers with their confidence.

November, 2004

For 4 seasons now Temptation has been conducting "Swim with Dolphins" cruises. Because of the uniqueness of this cruise and with the curiosity and magnificent displays from our friendly local dolphins this is our most popular cruise. From day one we got to swim with the local dolphins for 16 minutes. This has now increased to an average 48 minutes in the water and we have always seen dolphins on every dolphin swim cruise.

I would love it if any one out there knows of any other place in the world that can boast this amount of swimming interaction time (wild dolphins only).

In all our Dolphin swim cruises we have always seen dolphins and on only six occasions we didn't get to swim with them (reasons 1. Too rough 2. Not enough dolphin interaction 3. Water too dirty.)

Of course not everyone on the cruise wishes to get into the water, however those passengers who don't go in the water still come away with a unique and special close up encounter with these magnificent creatures. Even from the vessel they are just out of reaching distance enabling you to enjoy and capture on film their playful displays - something that you will remember and treasure forever.

We are currently developing a dolphin photo library and dolphin video library.

November, 2004

Another great month for dolphins, we were averaging over 60 dolphins per trip and averaging well over 1 hour swim time.

The water temperature is around 19 degrees and visibility around 10 metres (perfect conditions).

We have been watching the antics of a seal that has been swimming with a pod of dolphins off Marino rock for the last 3 months – this seal bow rides and feeds with the dolphins and swims with the swimmers (we're sure it actually thinks its a dolphin !) anyway, we love it.

Late November the dolphins are already moving away from the beaches as canoers persist on going to the dolphins and following them. During the coming months with holiday “boat traffic” on the water we expect the dolphins to move away from the beaches.

We have also spotted a few pregnant dolphins which should be giving birth over the next month or two, we hope that canoers can respect the fact that new born dolphins, however cute they are, can not hold their breath for long and can not move fast and need to be left alone.

October, 2004

What a great month!
Lots of dolphins, lots of seals and heaps of penguins.
We averaged over 50 dolphins per trip in October.

Our swim time for almost all trips was over 1 hour with visibility about 10 metres and water temperature around 18º.

It has taken four years and I only now think I have worked out the social structure of the local dolphins, but I am sure they will prove me wrong again.

During November we will be loosing Jade as a crew member on Temptation’s dolphin swim cruises as she has finally got the dolphins to come to her charter boat “Conquest”.
This has taken 14 months but finally she can start conducting her swims.

September, 2004

The water visibility was poor early September due to heavy rains and strong winds but became OK late in September.

There were a lot of seals around but we were only averaging 22 dolphins per trip – well below average and the interaction was also well down with only short periods this month.

The squid are moving into the squid grounds now which should bring dolphins from other areas closer to Glenelg. So October we should be seeing more and more dolphins within the area.

August, 2004

After a few months of maintenance "Temptation" is back in the water and operating.

We only had a few trips in August and it was a bad month for swimmers - the water temperature was around 12°and was very dirty from the heavy rains in July.

The dolphins were scattered all along the coast in small pods and the interaction time was well down.

There is a lot more seals around at the moment compared to the last few years.

We have another abandoned young dolphin in the marina - this makes four abandoned dolphins in four seasons.

May '04

May was a bad month for the swimmers. We had lots of rain and strong winds, although the dolphins are still close to Glenelg.

May 20th was the first time in 2 seasons that we had gone out and not had a swim - we did not get enough dolphin interaction, the water was dirty and a bit rough. All swimmers received their money back as well as a little souvenier. Dolphin numbers were down in May but I put this down to not being able to spot them at a distance because of grey clouds and choppy water.

June and July is maintenance time and a holiday period for the crew.

Temptation will be taken out of the water and the back steps will be extended to allow easier access for swimmers and to give the boat better stability.

April '04

April was an easy month for finding dolphins as they were just out from the marina for the entire month. This was good for the watchers but bad for the swimmers as the water visibility is not good around Glenelg due to the dredging and the river outlets. The water temperature is now around 19°.

We have now recorded 9 babies for this season.

April 11th was an exciting day for crew members, as "Mohawk" came into the marina with a new born (this was how our swims all started 4 years ago when we first noticed Mohawk with a new born which we named "Jade").

However, April 22nd and 24th "Mohawk" came to Temptation to swim up front of the vessel for over 20 minutes on both occasions but the new born was not in sight.

Please note Sunday May 23rd will be our last swim of this season - we will be back to play with the dolphins mid August.

March '04

March was an excellent month with great visibility, lots of dolphins and many babies.

The dolphins have moved back to the Glenelg area with many of our first swims within the first 15 minutes of the cruise.

During the beginning of March the dolphins held back a bit from the swimmers, this we assume was due to the babies, however, towards the end of March the dolphins were back to the usual curious and playful dolphins that we know and love.

So far this year we have noted 8 new borns.

Crew member Jade headed over to Western Australia early March to look at Mandura, Rockingham and Bunbury and also took the long journey up to Monkey Mia - notes from this trip will be placed on the World Dolphin Swim pages under Western Australia soon.

February '04

February dolphin swim cruises were excellent! We had great weather, excellent water visibility, heaps of dolphins and good swims. Although we have had to travel futher away from the Glenelg beaches to pick up dolphin pods for most of February.

During the month we have seen 7 new born bottlenose dolphins in the local area.

On the 12th February, there were reports of Killer Whales being spotted in the area but they had disappeared by the time we got there.

Please note: Seals have been seen regularly resting in their usual area - For those people who know where this is, please keep the information to yourself because as mentioned above "they are resting".

January '04

During January, as a whole, we did not see many dolphins per trip and the swims were either exceptionally good or very poor.

Jade (the dolphin) has been taking care of a juvenile dolphin and Mohawk has been spotted mainly on her own.

The local beaches are almost dolphin free after the January long weekend, with all swims between January 26th and January 31st not being anything to write about.

The seals are still off the beaches of Adelaide and should be given a wide berth as they float on the surface with fins in the air.