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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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