Currently on the Eco-cruise, Green turtles are seen with regularity, grazing on seagrass and surfacing to breathe and take a curious look at the Eco-Cruise boat and guests before disappearing with a splash.  Spotted eagle rays slowly cruise the shallow waters, and shovelnose rays have been seen camouflaged underneath the sand and darting away across the sandbanks.  En route to our chosen destinations for the day, pods of Inshore Bottlenose dolphins are seen in the deeper water.  This time of year, these pods consist of several  mother and calf pairs that are extremely playful occasionally frollick at the bow of the Eco-cruise vessel.  The dugong remains elusive, with only a handful of sightings over the past month.  These shy creatures are glimpsed surfacing for a quick breath before disappearing into the depths.  Hopefully the herds of dugongs will return for the upcomming months!

Storm our little 5 year old male dolphin did not arrive at the feed last night.  Staff were not too worried because these dolphins are wild, and if they have better things to do like hunting or chasing the other dolphins around the bay, they may not attend the programme.  Although we always have some dolphins attend the nightly programme, we may not see some of the dolphins, especially the males for a night or two and occasionally we may not see them for up to 6 weeks.

As Storm is a juvenile male dolphin, he has not established any really close bonds with other male dolphins quite yet, although when Storm reaches maturity in approx 4 years, he will form his own male alliances.  This means that Storm will spend most of his time with the other male dolphins.  In dolphin societies, the dolphins generally hang out in 3 different groups.  They are:  (1) adult males, (2) mothers and their calves (which stay together for 3-6 years) and  (3) young males who have not yet reached reproductive maturity.   Adult males and females may gather together to mate, while the young males (like Storm) remain isolated until they reach maturity.