Dolphin in Chi

[NDG]

Motoring into Chi at about 7.30 on saturday evening, just abeam of the green bouy at the anchorage at East Head. Heard a familiar snorting kind of sound, we looked over the side and were slightly surprised (to say the least) to see a large dolphin accompanying us, right alongside the boat. Reckon he was about 2 m in length, quite a big one.

Really surprised to see this, as the water is quite shallow there and, if you are a dolphin, its quite a long way inland.

Not sure if dolpins have been seen in Chi before, but the chaps in the harbour master launch we spoke to had never heard of it.

I know there is a resident dolphin off Selsey Bill, maybe it was him? He had 3 or 4 prominent scars (probably from a propeller) on the left side of his dorsal fin.

Anyone else seen it?

 

[fireball]

Nope - and not seen last night whilst we were blasting back and forth /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I'll keep a better eye open now though ...

We do have resident seals though ...


btw - the starboard marker is called East Head Spit.

 

[clouty]

We had a large black seacreature - 2 metres sounds about right - could have been a dolphin, but he didn't jump or show his face, playing with our boat under engine(!) when we running for shelter to Portsmouth, about 1/2 mile from Spit Sand Fort, bearing 220. Cheered up the crew no end, circling round and swimming alongside.

Just to make it clear before someone snidely says we were in a dangerous position, the bearing is from the fort. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[seumask]

The ferry Boat driver at HISC showed me a good clip of the dolphin he took on Sunday morning, with his camera phone he had pictures of it moving along side the ferry and across the bow lovely to see. I was most disapointed not to see it as well, as we had been on one of the club moorings over night, I think it had come in on the last of the tide chasing the abundant fish we had noticed half an hour earlier. The Harbour was very quiet and rather wet that morning.

 

[cgull]

Had 3 seperate sightings of Dolphins in the Med last week, Croatia, out of Split area. Never seen dolphins in that area before

 

[peterb26]

Last year we had a young dolphin rescued from the mud up by the bridge at Hayling. Returned safely to open waters by HM Coastguard and a couple of other local agencies.

Plus all of last year there were a pod of 3 around the cans at the Owers - and often near the Dean Head/Dean Tail marks.

Ive never seen one personally in the harbour - apart from the stranded youngster that is.

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I have to add that the Dolphins out from Lagos are unbelievable - you have to go anything up to 12m out at this time of the year, but we have done this a few times now since getting here.

Unlike the small pods of bottlenose dolphin that you get in the UK, you can often get a hundred or more of the much smaller common dolphin in a pod out here. Its an amazing site - the water literally boils with Dolphin whereever you look.

I have had a couple of lessons from the local dolphin spotters, as its important out here to know when the dolphin want YOU to leave. However we all respect their wishes and if they say "b*gger off" - then we do.

 

[Cutter]

SO how do you know if the dolphin wants you to bog off?

 

[peterb26]

A few ways, but the most obvious is that perhaps 2 or 3 of them will swim 30-50 yards in front of you and "slap" their tails down on the water as they dive under.

Apparently this is a sign of annoyance, and the local dolphin experts say that it means "clear off - we want to be left in peace".

You can see all sorts of different behaviour out here. Often in the morning they just play round the boat - ride the bow-wave, follow the wake, and generally spend as much time in the air as under the sea.

Then in the afternoon - theres often a feeding ritual - no jumping or splashing, much faster movement through the water and the occasional frenzy when they have got a shoal of fish to devour.

But I'm no expert, just a novice really.