27 November 2015

Tight



Two striped dolphins surface in a tight formation.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

25 November 2015

Before a jump



Striped dolphin about to break the surface before a jump.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

23 November 2015

Grampus babysitting Delphinus



Risso's dolphin 'Yaya' babysitting a short-beaked common dolphin calf.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

21 November 2015

Biomimetics



This monofin model, a Lunocet Pro intended for free diving, was clearly inspired by cetacean flukes. A persuasive example of biomimetics.

(Photo courtesy of Marco Mardollo, Apnea Academy instructor and Technical Director at Y-40, the world's deepest pool)

20 November 2015

18 November 2015

16 November 2015

Speed



A fast-swimming striped dolphin.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

15 November 2015

Surfing



Striped dolphins surfing the wave of a passing ship.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

14 November 2015

Bay dolphin



Bottlenose dolphin in the Bay of Itea.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

13 November 2015

About to breach



Striped dolphin about to breach.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

12 November 2015

Striped dolphin nearshore



Striped dolphin off the northern coast of the Peloponnese. Striped dolphins are pelagic animals and finding them so close to shore is rather unusual.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

11 November 2015

Silvery dolphins



Silvery striped dolphins socialising near our boat, last September.

(Photo by G. Bearzi, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

10 November 2015

Tight bottlenoses



A group of bottlenose dolphis surfacing in tight formation in the Bay of Itea. Among them, the most 'resident' of all, nicknamed Codo, a female with abnormal and almost missing flukes (who, however, seems to be doing just fine).

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

09 November 2015

07 November 2015

End of the field season



This year's field research season has ended, but we aim to be back soon. The photo shows a nice gift from our former field assistant Annalucia Cantafaro.

06 November 2015

November sunset



As seen from the Galaxidi field station.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni)

New dorsal fin marking



A fresh new notch has appeared on the dorsal fin of this striped dolphin.

Matching thousands of dorsal fin photos belonging to hundreds of different animals would be hard enough, but it becomes even harder when one is required to consider dorsal fin changes that may have occurred over time. Failure to track evolution of fin markings will result in wrong additions of new individuals in the catalogue, and therefore biased estimates of abundance. One must be very careful.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

05 November 2015

Backlit jump



Two juvenile striped dolphins play in a sunburn summer day.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

04 November 2015

Coastal dolphins



This is about as close as bottlenose dolphins can get to the coast. Well... they do get even closer sometimes.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

November sunrise



Being stuck in Greece due to an ongoing ferry strike let us enjoy fantastic November sunrises.

(Photo by G. Bearzi, Galaxidi)

03 November 2015

02 November 2015

First snow



First snow on the Parnassos.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

Can you spot the dolphins?



Bottlenose dolphins aren't easy to spot when they surface amid fish farm cages, buoys and pipelines. Such environment may not look 'natural', but that's where they can manage to find some food.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

01 November 2015

Garfish



A school of garfish Belone belone jumps in terror as bottlenose dolphins approach a fish farm buoy. 

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)