BAH 0001

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Spotted Dolphins, Stenella frontalis, are followed by a snorkeler near Bimini in the Bahamas. These playful and curious youngsters don't yet show the characteristic spots that develop with age, but even if they did, this silhouetted image would not show them anyway...

Note: These dolphins are attracted only by their own curiosity. They are not enticed to mingle with us by food or other means other than the simple fact of our presence in the water with them. That they stay around us clumsy snorkelers can be attributed to their natural curiosity; they are free to leave at any time, and they usually do leave after they tire of us.

This is a far cry from captive dolphin encounter programs where dolphins are kept in pools or in sea-pens and eventually become completely dependent on their captors for food, soon associating humans with food and their very survival. Some of their owners maintain the dolphins are free to leave if they wish, but captive dolphins soon become afraid of the open ocean and grow to depend on humans feeding them dead fish as they loose their skills of finding and catching wild live fish. Wild dolphins will only eat live fish, but they rapidly learn to adapt to captivity, pleasing their keepers by performing stupid circus tricks for the dead fish they grow to depend on as food. For more on the subject of captive dolphins, please follow this link to see a few images of a Dolphinarium and then click onto RicO'Barry's website.

Equipment: Nikonos V, Nikkor 20mm lens, Ikelite viewfinder, Fuji Provia 100f pushed one stop.