Welcome to Dr. Michael Poole's "Dolphin Watch" expedition. Dr. Poole is the Director of the Marine Mammal Research Program in French Polynesia. His speciality, and (I think) the most abundant species around Tahiti is the Spinner Dolphin.

The boat picked us up about 8:30AM at the dock right by the Bali Hai Hotel. We headed out towards Cook Bay and quickly located a pod of Spinners numbering somewhere between about 25 and 50. We followed them around for well over an hour, the boat moving very slowly and gently adjusting to the dolphins' direction.

If you're interested in learning more about the Spinners and Dr. Poole, do a search on "spinner dolphins" and "poole" on your favorite search engine (my favorite search engine is Google <http://www.google.com>).

Here are a few more shots taken while we followed the pod of Spinners around the bay. From time to time, one or two would do their spinning jump that gives them their name. (Why do Spinner dolphins spin around when they jump? Because they can, of course.) I wasn't quick enough on the shutter to catch one in mid air, but I think I got one just as it landed. Oh, well.

Here's a few shots among the coral from the underwater Canon. The little blue spots (below, left) are actually very blue fish. In the picture on the right, there's a fish in the foreground (forewater?) that's nearly invisible until you focus on it (slightly left of center).

Enlargements of the blue fish and the "invisible" (camouflaged) fish.