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5 Places to go Dolphin Spotting

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5 Places to go Dolphin Spotting
Dolphin Spotting

With travel and tourism ever easier and people having the chance to go further and further afield, experiencing something new is high on many travelers’ list of vacation activities.

Dolphin Spotting
Dolphin Spotting

Getting close to nature is an extremely popular way to do this and dolphin watching is an exciting way to commune with the natural world. Dolphin watching is a particularly accessible activity thanks to the wide variety of dolphins and the widespread nature of their habitat.

Whichever part of the world visitors choose to take their holidays, there are some places that are considered to be prime dolphin watching locations.

Because it is possible to watch dolphins pretty much anywhere, it is quite a difficult task to narrow down all the locations to just five. However, what the following five places have in common is that it is possible to not only watch the dolphins, but also to swim with them.

The best dolphin watching is considered to be around the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. It is thought that there are more than 24 species of marine mammals living in these waters. This is thanks to the location of the islands which are in the middle of the Atlantic. This location makes the Azores an ideal habitat for animals that migrate, though there are also species native to the islands.

In the Azores, dolphins are plentiful and it is possible at times to see around eight different species. Super pods have also been spotted off the Azores. These super pods can consist of over a thousand dolphins.

New Zealand is another of the best places to experience dolphins and nowhere is better than Akaroa on New Zealand’s South Island. Only 75 miles from Christchurch, it is an easy place to reach. There are many other sites in New Zealand but Akaroa is considered the best.

Thanks to the large supply of nutrients in Akaroa’s coastal water, there is a huge amount of marine life, including big pods of Dusky dolphins, which can be seen almost the whole year round. There are also Hectors dolphins to be seen in and around Akaroa harbour almost daily, whatever the season.

Islands are particularly good places to go dolphin watching and The Hawaiian Islands are a perfect place to enjoy both watching and swimming with dolphins

Around the islands are Spinner, Spotted and Bottlenose dolphins, amongst others. Spinner dolphins are perhaps the most commonly seen and are famously playful. Oahu and Kona Islands are considered the best places to see dolphins in the Hawaiian archipelago.

Another island, this time close to the US, is the Bahamian Island of Bimini. Less than fifty miles from Miami and reached by plane within half an hour, Bimini is an ideal place to go dolphin watching.

Surrounded by beautiful, warm, shallow waters, Bimini is home to large numbers of Atlantic Spotted dolphins. Dolphin watching is big business here and the dolphins are amazingly interactive. The Atlantic Spotted dolphin is an extremely playful species as well as being highly intelligent and there is ample opportunity not only to watch these marine mammals, but also to swim with them.

The Red Sea is a beautiful place to watch and swim with dolphins, particularly Spinner and Bottlenose dolphins. Risso dolphins can also be seen, although they are a much shyer species, so not always on view.

The great thing about the Red Sea is that dolphin watching can be done year round, thanks to the abundance of dolphins in the area. Samadaii, in Marsa Alam, Egypt, is considered the best place to experience swimming with dolphins as the nearby lagoon is a common breeding ground in May, although the dolphins are there year round.

Warm areas such as St. Lucia and other places in the Caribbean and California are also popular dolphin watching sites, but dolphins can also be visited in cooler climes. Iceland is home to white beaked dolphins, whilst Ireland and Scotland also attract dolphins to their shores.

So, whether it is close to home or a more far flung destination, dolphin watching is an activity that can be experienced and enjoyed by anyone, almost anywhere, at almost any time of the year.