Dolphin Watching My new thrill

When Dave decided to buy a banca (a motorized canoe with outriggers), I was thrilled. We live on a small peninsula surrounded by mangroves, the South China Sea and Puerto Princesa Bay.

I've read that both spinner and bottle nose dolphins ply these waters. These, I believe are spinner dolphins. Spinner dolphins can be found in schools of up to 200 individuals!  They like to feed at night on fish and squid and I read they like to do most of their jumping and spinning at night as well. I guess we were lucky to see them during the day.
A spinner dolphin doing it's thing!!

A lot of tourists come to Puerto Princesa, Palawan for the Underground River, I'll take dolphin watching over it any day...although I have seen the Underground River three times now!!
Shot taken with a GoPro Hero cam in a waterproof case from above the water from the front of the bangka

Spinner dolphins are considered small and weigh up to 79 Kilograms.

Shot with a GoPro Hero2 cam, mounted on a metal pole and submerged when the dolphins would swim by. Swimming with the dolphins or feeding them,  is not allowed  . Best to leave them wild! 



This spinner dolphin was right next to me in the boat...taken overhead with a GoPro Hero2 cam, hand held. There were so many all around us, I just pointed and shot. It was too bright to see what I was shooting, but the GoPro is so wide angle you are bound to get something.

When we spot the dolphins, we head out towards them. They suddenly, magically appear next to the boat and swimming ahead. They will usually disappear again and then resurface when we once again get near them. This is the underwater view of what they were doing and where they were coming from in all directions. Shots were taken with a GoPro Hero cam, in underwater housing, then attached to a metal rod and dipped into the water when we'd start to see them close by.

When we moved here in 2009 I heard there was dolphin watching but we have never taken the tours. When we went out on our own bangka a few weeks ago, along with Alysha, our daughter and some other village children, we were literally flanked by dolphins!

Most tourists come to Palawan to see the to visit the Puerto Princesa Underground River, which of course being one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, is spectacular, and which we have seen 3 times. But for me, since this is practically in our "backyard" so to speak, watching the wild dolphins frolic is my new obsession and joy.

I love living in Puerto Princesa!


Location: Puerto Princesa South Rd, Puerto Princesa, Philippines

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