Playful Spinner Dolphins: An Underwater Look

  Sometimes I feel like all my luck gets used up in one fell swoop. Take for example this latest experience in the water off Maui. I swim out to test my new camera and who should show up but a very playful group of Hawaiian spinner dolphins. I have swam with them before but this time was different.
   Instead of cruising back and forth in a 300+yard area, this pod was circling in the same spot. I counted around 30 dolphins, many of which were playing 'keep away' with bright orange leaves. They would swim with the leaves on their pectoral fins, tail fin, dorsal fin, or even the tip of their beak. Every once in a while a leaf would shake off and the dolphin would circle back to catch it again. At one point I noticed one of these leaves floating next to me, so I grabbed it, made a few circles with it and then tossed it out away from me. Low and behold one of the dolphins eventually made its way over and swooped up the leaf.
 
Playing keep away with a leaf
Easy to see which one is the playful one

  I have never had such a playful group of dolphins interact with me before. Needless to say it was a great way to test out the new camera rig. The water was a bit murkier than normal due to the heavy winter rainfall but it cleared up enough out deeper.
  My friends Nate and Jen were out with me this morning as well. Nate had his underwater camera and is a great freediver so I was able to snap a couple pictures of him down with the dolphins. There is always something very special about being in the water with such intelligent, beautiful creatures.

Like the pictures? Check out more at www.daimarsphotos.com
Nate getting a frame full of dolphin



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