What it is like and how it behaves
The bottlenose dolphin is the dolphin almost everyone pictures. It is large and sturdy, grey in colour, with a short, broad snout. Its curved mouth gives it that look of always smiling.
It is a highly social and intelligent animal. It lives in groups, communicates with whistles and hunts as a team. It feeds on fish and squid. It is often curious and lively, and it likes to come close to boats.
Where you experience it on board
It is a regular resident of the Teno-Rasca Marine Strip. Together with the tropical pilot whale, it is the species that appears most often on our outings. Even so, we never promise a sighting: the sea is not a stage and nature alone decides.
When it appears, it often takes up position by the bow. It rides the wave the sailboat forms as it moves and lets itself be carried along, leaping and turning. It is one of those moments that stays with you.
We approach slowly, without chasing, sailing at under four knots near the cetaceans. The silence of sailing helps the dolphin itself decide to come closer. We never go after them: we let it happen.
Respect comes first
Although its closeness invites it, swimming with dolphins is prohibited by regulation, and we always comply. The swimming and snorkelling on the outing take place in sheltered anchorages by the coast, not with the cetaceans.
Keeping our distance does not take the magic out of the encounter: it adds to it. Watching a calm dolphin, under no pressure, is the best way to enjoy it and to make sure it keeps choosing these waters to live in. That respect is at the heart of how we understand the sea. For us, the sea is not a stage set up for visitors, but the home of these animals, and stepping in gently is the only fair way to enter it.
