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Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
Contributed by Rosemary Tully of Whakatane Bird Rescue.
Photos by Rosemary Tully and John Wharehoka.
Page sponsor is Whyte
Weddings Photography. Wedding Photographers at Ohope, Whakatane and
the Eastern Bay of Plenty.
 Grey
in colour, this is one of the types of dolphins that like bow riding.
It has a hooked fin and grows to nearly 4 metres.
There is an inshore sub-species of the bottlenose, which is slightly thinner
that the oceanic form.
The diet of these dolphins is fish, squid and krill etc.
The pods most often seen in the Bay of Plenty waters are the oceanic species.
They are a very active dolphin jumping out of the water, and seem to enjoy
interacting with humans.
 The
photograph shows a pod of oceanic bottlenose dolphins cruising off Ohope
Beach taken from the boat Te Tahi.
To the right is a photo of a bottlenose calf just off Ohope Beach.
You can see from the photo that the calf is blowing through its blowhole
and creating bubbles.
The calf would not be more that a week old.
Note the baby's snout is much shorter than that of the adults in the above
picture.
Common Dolphin (Delphinus dehpis)
 The
common dolphin can be found in large pods off the coast of the Bay of
Plenty. This is
the dolphin most often found by the "Swim with the Dolphins"
companies. It can
sometimes be seen from the beach jumping out of the water, even doing
somersaults. Swims
very fast, and can be found in big workups of fish, rounding them up and
then taking turns, rushing through to catch the fish.
They like bow riding and are very vocal, making squeals and clicks, which
can be heard from a boat if they are nearby.
Common dolphins reach a length of between 2-3 metres.
The dorsal fin has a pointed tip and is triangular, each of the dolphin's
fins is slightly different in colouration and shape and this is used to
identify each dolphin.
The colouration of the dolphin is black/grey top, creamy/yellowish sides
and whitish underneath; the colours are in an hourglass shape. (See photo)
The photograph to the right shows common dolphins taken from the boat
TeTahi off the coast of Whakatane.
The photograph above is of a common dolphin caught in the sunlight showing
the hourglass effect on the side of the dolphin.
© Ohope Beach.info 2003
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