Dolphins right up next to the beach

[Navy OnStar]

I was flying right over Pensacola beach yesterday. (I love my job) and the water was perfectly calm and a nice emerald color. From 500ft in the air I could see over 20ft deep into the water (Could see some things in the water I have dove on and knew the depth) and saw a pod of 18 dolphins only 25yards from the beach just slowly swimming parallel to the beach. I circled a for a few minutes and then continued towards Mobile and came upon a second pod of 9 dolphins doing the same exact thing. It was such a wonderful sight I circled those as well (My student didn't mind, as long as I was Dolphin watching I wasn't failing guages on him ) It was, for a momement, next to perfect. Had I been in the water swimming with them, then it would have been perfect. It made my day up until that point, then my student realized he forgot the goverment credit card for fuel and it all went downhill from there....for him at least

Just had to share

OnStar

[aeropl]

Sounds really cool. I would love to swim with dolphins in the wild like that. Forgetting the credit card is no big deal right? What's it cost to fill up your chopper, like $45?

[RoadRacer1978]

Too cool. Bet you wanted to jump right out and swim with them. Sounds like you have the perfect job to scout some good diving locations for yourself.

[ChrisA]

I've seen them swimming close to the beach many times, saw a grey whale from shore last weekend. But the dolphin must not like divers they leave if divers are in the water. The closest I ever got to swimming with them is once (at Malaga Cove for you So Cal divers) I was exiting the surf in chest deep water and noticed two dolphin 60 feet away just past the surf zone. I only know one diver who actually was swimming and saw one. He was just down the beach a few miles at Redondo he was in 20 feet of water, looked up and they swam over. I was there and noticed dolphin but I was not in the water yet, still gearing up in the parking lot.

When I had my sailboat, many times when we'd get going "fast", that is over 5 knots, we'd see them surfing our bow wake. They would take turns. You could go up forward and see them just a few feet away. The coolest thing was when this happened at night. Near midnight while sailing we had the bio-luminescent plankton out (it makes disturbed water glow with a green light) we saw the wake surfing dolphin's green glowing outline forms. Like ghosts or comets. It looked like an outline of a dolphin but they left trails of light. It has to be very dark to see this but out on the ocean without a moon and out of sight of land it is very, very dark so dark there is no visible horizon line just stars above and even darker water below. And then these green seven foot long glow in the dark ghosts dart around the boat. We have a lot of dolphin here. I've seen schools of thousands in the channels between the islands here in So Cal.

[diversteve]

[navyhmc]

Navy on Star, can you hook up an old chief if I get down that way? Just drop me off at a secluded beash and pick me up in a few hours?

[Navy OnStar]

Originally Posted by navyhmc

Navy on Star, can you hook up an old chief if I get down that way? Just drop me off at a secluded beash and pick me up in a few hours?

You pay for the gas........Oh, and $800,000.00 for a helicopter to start my own business after I get out of leavenworth!

[Navy OnStar]

Originally Posted by aeropl

Sounds really cool. I would love to swim with dolphins in the wild like that. Forgetting the credit card is no big deal right? What's it cost to fill up your chopper, like $45?

Come on now, it would be at least $55.00!

[BuzzF117]

Along the cost of SC they are up close to the beach at low tide I have seen them off Isle of Palms and I have heard stories that down by Kiawah there is a pod that will heard fish up on the beach and they beach themselves to retrieve the fish then flop themselves back into the water. I have not personally seen this but I could see how they could learn this if the beach is just right.

[PsychDiver]

We often go to Galveston Island and ride the ferry to see how many dolphins we can spot. I have yet to go and not see any. When family comes to Houston it is a fun thing for them to do and the ferry is free if you walk on. It is about a 20 minute ride to the other side and you wait to get reloaded and ride it back. It is a lot of fun. But remember her the water is murky so you have to look for the pods breaking the surface.