Bottlenose Dolphin

Description:

Grey body, seems to be on the medium-large body size (going by the other dolphins I've seen). There is quite the large pod of dolphins here and from just off shore it is easy to discern when they are cruising, hunting or playing, just by their slow or quick movements, leaps, and sometimes (awesome) choice to body surf on the waves.

Habitat:

The Bay of All Saints, on the far end away from the shipping port/cruise boat call of Ensenada. There are many fishing boats and nets (both strung from buoys just off shore, and placed in circles far into the bay to contain tuna for commercial sale) but not many boats or other species to disturb the dolphins. Plenty to feed off of and play with though, between fish, squid and rays. The water is noticeably warmer than further up the coast - in Oregon, my feet and legs would go numb in minutes. In this part of the Pacific, I can stay in the water a solid hour or so before numbness sets in.

Notes:

While there seems to be a large number of dolphins in the pod, over the course of two months I witnessed at least 4 dolphins washed up on shore. There is a large bird population that always got their first, so I couldn't venture a guess as to how they died even if it had been some form of attack. I have pictures of one of these deceased dolphins, as well, but won't subject anyone to them here.