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Archive for the ‘Marine Mammals’Mar 17, 10 Comments (0)
 Flying Dolphin Good evening friends, it was another hot and dry day here in Curacao. For those of you having rain please feel free to send a little down here, in fact we can trade, you send us moisture and we can send you some warm sunshine!
Today at work we saw the craziest thing and I didn’t have a good lens to capture it. During a dolphin swim a big Blue Heron landed on our rocks and in seconds caught a giant yellow trumpetfish!! The trumpetfish was so big like two feet in length that the heron could hardly hold onto it with his mouth and he struggled to hold it for the next few minutes. The heron kind of just stood there thinking, ok, this is a big one, how do I eat it now?? Finally in one big swift movement he flipped the live flopping fish straight up in the air and down it went head first into the birds throat!! At first the heron just stood there with it’s neck fully extended because the fish was so long. Moments later you could see the fish still flopping around inside his neck and body, and then ever so slowly it went further down still moving in the belly, it was unreal!! Unfortunately we have these really cheap Sigma lens hooked to our nice Nikon D-90’s, it’s like a bumper sticker on a Lamborghini!
Here’s one of our beautiful dolphins flying high in the air during one of our daily Dolphin Academy dolphin shows. I think this is Kayena for those of you out there who know all the dolphins by name.
I have a bunch to do tonight, more tomorrow, Barry
Feb 25, 10 Comments (0)
 Dolphin and Diver Well hello everyone, Aimee here! I am a bachelorette, it seems! I got Barry off to the airport yesterday evening and he arrived safely and hopefully spent the day hard at work (diving, that is). Now, we have been here almost 6 years and just when we think we have had all the “Curacao experiences” we could have, one more drops in our laps. That happened yesterday at the airport. Let me explain. When Barry was packing we already knew he would be overweight. He had little regular luggage, but with all the dive gear and the camera, housing, lights etc, there is no way he would not be overweight. We were prepared for that. So, as we checked in the girls put the luggage on the scale and told him he would have to pay more, naturally. He handed them his credit card and to our surprise, they shook their heads and said “no, you don’t pay here, you have to walk to the next building down the street, go wait in line and pay there’. Huh? Seriously? We both looked at each other and actually asked them once again and they explained that they did not accept money (cash or credit) and we had to go to the other place, a 10 minute walk! So, I waited with the bags as Barry went and paid. I asked them for the little tags to place on the bags and she said she only had ones for Caracas, Venezuela. Well, that would not be too good. I asked her if she could look some more and she then opened another drawer, thank goodness and, hello; there were some for Bonaire! Well, Barry got back, we got him finished off and he headed upstairs. We had to have him there 2 hours ahead of time for a 15 minute flight from Curacao to Bonaire. Funny.
Well, here is a wonderful photo of Zenzi, Tela and Pasku out on the reef diving. This little guy is a super-star, as his mother is already. Hope you enjoy the photo and the story. I am sure Barry will have many stories of his own when he gets back. I hope he is having a wonderful time with all his new dive buddies and a special thanks to the Wannadive Hut for taking care of him! See you tomorrow!
Aimee
Feb 24, 10 Comments (0)
 Jumping Baby Dolphin Hey guys, I am off to Bonaire!! Talk to you all in a week! I have to be there in an hour so this will be the shortest ever!
I shot this today of little Pasku, he sure doesn’t jump high yet but he loves doing it!! Gotta go, Aimee will be sending your mail for the next 6 days and I won’t have computer access! Bye now, Barry
Feb 14, 10 Comments (0)
 Double Pec Shake Good afternoon, I hope you all are out enjoying Valentine’s Day. I am finally walking a little better today, I took the dogs to Saint Joris this morning for a fun walk around the waters edge looking for washed in treasures. It actually was a great morning of collecting. I found some nice big deer eye seeds, some great driftwood pieces, some really nice sea urchin skeletons including two tiny ones and my favorite find a super big piece of volcanic floating rock. I sure wish I knew where these floating rocks originated from, the ones here are a light grey and can be found all along the waters edge but I’m sure they floated in from some other near-by island. I remember in Mexico I went collecting for floating rocks along the coast with our friends Joe and Nancy but those were a much darker color and some were even black, but boy were they fun to find
Here’s a fun shot of Junior doing a very cool double hand shake or as we say a double pec shake with Tela and baby Pasku. This was taken yesterday at the beginning of our 4:30 dolphin show. It made me laugh looking at this photo because they still haven’t fixed the roof from when hurricane Omar went thru, see it in the background?? Things don’t get done fast in Curacao my friends.
Happy Valentine’s Day again, be back tomorrow, Barry
Feb 13, 10 Comments (0)
 Copan and the Coast Guard Good morning all, just to tired last night to play on the computer so I am up at 5:30 to do it now. I recently mentioned in one of my dolphin blogs that our dolphins when they go outside into the open ocean like to surf the front of boats that are passing by, here’s one such recorded case. I think this was last year, we had just taken our big male Copan out for a morning dive. Well Copan immediately headed out to play with the Coast Guard that was passing by before he came to play with us. The Coast Guard boys didn’t even know he was there for the longest time until a bunch of us on shore started waving our hands franticly and pointing for them to look at the front of the boat. They knew something was wrong so they slowed down and then spotted him as you see here then turned around and brought him back to us. Copan was in no danger, he was just playing but it always gives your heart a little jump start to see him out in front of another boat. Someone also asked about wild dolphins and if we ever see them? The answer is yes and each morning before we take the dolphins out we do a trip in the boat to patrol the coast for wild dolphins. One time Annie (dolphin) was out doing a dive and a pod of wild dolphins came by, that turned into quite a spectacle. The wild dolphins came right up to us and kind of chased Annie back into our lagoon they really wanted her to come out and play but she stayed close like a good girl.
Time to make the Highlander (best coffee in the World) need to get Aimee and the dogs up. Talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Feb 11, 10 Comments (0)
 Diving with Dolphins Hello again, it’s just me. Not a lot to report from Curacao today, I pretty much just stayed home and let the knee rest some more. Tomorrow evening will be a week since my stupid bike crash, geez I never would have guessed I would be laid up this long??
If you haven’t already guessed, it’s dolphin week, it’s the only thing I have been photographing. This is Zenzi again, one of our top trainers stationing Tela and Pasku. These animals really know certain people and respond to them just like a well trained dog. What’s she’s doing here is kind of stopping them in mid-water to get their attention and once focused she will try to get them to swim along side her helping me to get a better photo. Without a trainer out here these dolphins would never stop and one would have a hard time getting close enough for a shot because let me tell you they are fast, dolphins can swim up to speeds of 25 mph!
I wish I had something more exciting for you, maybe tomorrow. See ya, Barry
Feb 11, 10 Comments (0)
 Diving with Dolphins Good morning readers of the blog, how are you all this morning?? I am still limping on this knee, looks like it will still be another week and not sure any kind of lesson was learned from it. Yesterday was a busy day at work. I spent almost 2 hours underwater trying to get some dolphin photos by just holding my breath. There is nothing I have found that makes you more tired than holding your breath repeatedly for a long period of time, I even slept in till 6:30, I never do that!
Here’s another fun shot out in the open ocean of baby Pasku (front) and his mamma Tela. Zenzi is in the background, she had just jumped in from the boat and was on her way down. Many have again asked what I mean by “open ocean”. The Dolphin Academy is one of only 3 places in the World that takes their dolphins out into the wild ocean for a morning swim. There are no gates, no nets, no fences, no rock walls, nothing, it’s just us in a small Boston Whaler and the dolphins follow us out to a designated spot on the reef. Once out to our “parking spot” we tie the boat up, a diver/trainer as you see here jumps in and off they go to interact with a waiting group of divers. Once out the dolphins do what dolphins do, they play and hunt! They never go below 60 feet although they can dive to depths of over 1000 feet and stay under without a breath for 20 minutes. During this ocean swim the dolphins are not fed anything from the boat, they are there because they want to be there and we make it as fun for them as possible. After the dive the trainer will ascend back up to the boat with the dolphins following, climb in and then open a fish bucket and fully reward them for a job well done, cool huh?? Occasionally another boat will go by while they are out and our dolphins will surf the waves being created by the front of the boat and leap out of the water giving everyone a great show. They also love to surf the waves, it’s one of their favorite things to do. Tela seen here is one of our best fisherman!! She can and has caught just about everything including flounders and squid and eats them while out playing around and Pasku is right there as well learning everything from his mamma. For any of you wanting to see this yourself, and I highly recommend it, go to www.dolphin-academy.com or go to www.oceanencounters.com and click on Dolphin Boat Dives they can make it happen for you!!
That’s about it, a word to you guys out there, it’s almost Valentine’s forget this day and your dead meat!! Till tomorrow, Barry
Feb 9, 10 Comments (0)
 Tela and Pasku Good evening friends, o’l one leg here. Well today it is actually a bit better, not a lot, but better. So even though I am injured I still went on a dive this morning with our two dolphins, Tela and her baby Pasku and trainer Zenzi. Before I even got in the water it seemed like everything was going wrong all at once! The skies were dark and overcast, the sea had turned rough and once underwater I quickly found out someone had turned the current on without asking me first! For those of you who have never swam in current using just one leg, well it’s a serious workout!! I was breathing so hard trying to fight the current that I could hardly concentrate on the dolphins and my task at hand, I looked like a non-stop bubble making factory! Well thank goodness for Zenzi, she did her job great and kept turning the dolphins towards me so all I had to do was to just sit and wait in mid-water. Little Pasku was so cute, he is so curious, he would swim right up to me and just stop, look at me in the face and squeak something out in dolphin language then he would turn his whole little body sideways and wait for me to pet him, it was wonderful!! The dark sky above created this cool image you see here, momma and baby out for a morning swim in the open ocean, it doesn’t get any better than that!
After my fun morning I then spent the afternoon racing around town doing my “man chores”. These include going grocery shopping, getting gas, dropping off the laundry ect… you get the point. Ever since we have been here I mainly do the running around town stuff and Aimee cooks and does dishes, it works for me!!
We just got a pile of Christmas cards today, they were all sent to our old address, here is the new one please make a note of it,
La Privada
Paseo Mediterraneo 4A
Bapor Kibra
Curacao, NA (Netherlands Antilles)
See you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 29, 10 Comments (0)
 Laughing Dolphin Good evening from the Caribbean. I hope everyone had a good Friday and I’m sure your glad it’s the weekend, get out there and enjoy it!! Aimee and I both worked today and after I took the dogs for a walk while Aimee went to the movies with some friends and probably won’t be home for a few hours still. Many thanks for all the compliments today, we sure did get a whole lot of mail and we love it!!
I did a snorkel a few days ago in one of the dolphin lagoons, no tank, no flash, just me and the camera. Many times when I have a tank or the flashes on the camera the dolphins act scared and won’t come near me so this time I just tried my luck at free-diving. All in all I still didn’t do very well, I was in there for an hour and a half and finally just said “forget it” you guys are a pain! Well as I was headed out Teresa seen here swam right up to me and opened her mouth, it looked like she was laughing at me!! So with that I snapped one photo said thanks and out I went, I think they were just playing hard to get or something!
My head is fried tonight, gonna go watch some t.v. see you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 27, 10 Comments (0)
 Jumping Dolphin Hey gang, I just got home from a long day at work and am sitting here relaxing with a nice cup of Highlander Groog. We had a very nice weather day in Curacao today and the water looked like it was perfect for diving. I may actually go diving tomorrow if the conditions stay like this, I know a lot of you are missing the underwater pictures but it has been nice taking this long needed break.
I really don’t have much for you all tonight, this is a photo of one of our dolphins soaring high in the sky during one of the daily shows. I think many of you would be amazed at just how high these animals can jump out of the water, I know it blew me away the first time I ever saw it!!
Tomorrow morning I am meeting some friends and taking them to the polished sea glass spot to do some collecting, that’s always a guaranteed good time. After that Aimee and I are either going to shoot more trash or do a dive and then maybe go riding if my bike is finished at the shop.
I’m out, thanks for all the compliments on the pelican photo, Barry
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