Encounters and exchanges This month of July has been quite busy for Dauphins de Rangiroa.
Beyond the conferences organized for tourists and inhabitants of the atoll, we intervened with teenagers from Tahiti as part of a stay organized by the Direction des Solidarités, de la Famille et de l'Égalité [DSFE]. The young people already had good knowledge about dolphins, which allowed for rich and interesting exchanges!
We also received the visit of the multicultural crew of the sailboat Ocean Souls Explorer, which is currently sailing the Polynesian ocean while supporting research and monitoring projects on marine fauna. Thanks to Philip, Romina, Silvia, and Raphaël for the good times spent together as well as the sharing of their data on the dolphins of Rangiroa!
Fundraising with the Anavai Foundation This month, we also launched a fundraising campaign in partnership with the Anavai Foundation to co-finance the creation of a small comic strip to raise awareness about interactions between dolphins and tourism in the Tiputa area. The initial exchanges aimed at structuring the comic and developing the graphic universe of the character 'Moana the dolphin' are promising!
Underwater observations Among all the underwater observations made in July, we witnessed an astonishing scene involving the dolphin Câline and her mother, who is about thirty years old.
After about twenty minutes spent exploring the reef along the oceanic drop-off, we see the two females appear in the blue amidst a school of mackerel scads.
Câline's mother then grabs one of the fish, which she chews for a few seconds, then releases, dead, into the water column. She turns around a bit, then returns to the prey, which she grabs again. For more than ten minutes, she releases and catches the fish without haste, slowly navigating between the blue and the drop-off. This is the first time we have observed such behavior in the dolphins of Rangiroa.
Finally, little Aninui was observed many times with his mother, allowing us to film and photograph the multiple lesions present on his body. The little dolphin is also regularly accompanied by his sister and his grandmother, who seems to be very involved in his education.