Don't Swim with the Dolphins - Fernanado de Noronha Revisited (Part 1)
Scrolling through the pictures that I took from the last leg of our journey, it became evident that at some point during our stop in Fernando de Noronha, I reached my saturation point for amazing new stuff.
The visit to the island began on a very thrilling high point just moments after we dropped anchor in Port San Antonio harbor. As we tidied up on deck, the boat was surrounded by dozens of spinner dolphins – perhaps more than a hundred. I won’t do them the disservice of posting my poor quality attempts to capture their rather impressive displays of athleticism, so I’ll post a link to a more professional rendition:
Based on what I observed, I don’t really agree with any of the reasons proposed in that video for “why” spinner dolphins do what they do. In my opinion, their leaps into the air are purely for the purpose of showing off.
At first, we only saw dozens of fins moving through the water. But as I stood on the stern, one of the pod members about 10 yards from the boat shot out of the water in a perfect triple-revolution spiraling arc that would make NFL quaterbacks jealous. There was no belly-flop at the end; it re-entered the water with all the precision and grace of an olympic diver. Then another, farther out, leapt 8 feet straight up out of the water and back down with nary a splash.
There were many other people out on the water in much smaller craft. Various pods of dolphins would swim close and then proceed to put on a show for the visitors. People would drop their paddles and reach for their cameras, but by then it was too late. Perhaps the most charming act were the juveniles doing their best to impress the tourists, with leaps of half a turn, or swimming on their backs while slapping the water with their tails.
We had gone for a swim shortly after the anchor was secure, but with dolphins visiting, there was an urgent flurry to get back in the water. If we dove down, we could hear them communicating. When I first heard it, I thought it was a tiny, high-pitched air leak in my mask, but from the number and variations in pitches, I realized what it was. Wes pulled himself down the anchor rode and was surrounded by so many dolphins that he wondered if it might have been a mistake.
It was at this point that we were scolded by a passing sight-seeing boat. I didn’t really understand what we were being scolded for, and assumed that it was because there were people in the water with no diving flag visible to mark their location. But then Dan figured out that we were being told that we shouldn’t be swimming with the dolphins. This was later confirmed by the customs and immigration officials, who stated more than once that we should not swim with the dolphins. If dolphins came around and we were in the water, we should get out of the water.
The dream of “swimming with dolphins” is of course almost a cliché. So why the big fuss? In the case of the spinner dolphins, their apparent extreme level of sociablilty probably does in fact mean that they don’t need to get any more comfortable with humans than they already are. God knows it would be used against them if someone decided that they were some sort of delicacy. It was impossible not to respect the Brazilians’ intense love of their island paradise. We never got in the water again while the dolphins were around, even though they showed up every morning for a few hours and did their routine for the tourists (but only in the morning…they left for parts unknown around 11 a.m.)