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)

Twosome

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

Hop

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

Speed

A fast-swimming striped dolphin.

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

Surfing

Striped dolphins surfing the wave of a passing ship.

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

Bay dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin in the Bay of Itea.

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

About to breach

Striped dolphin about to breach.

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

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)

Silvery dolphins

Silvery striped dolphins socialising near our boat, last September.

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

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)

Skimming

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

Striped dolphin and clouds

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

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.

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)

Backlit jump

Two juvenile striped dolphins play in a sunburn summer day.

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

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)

Windy Galaxidi

The port of Galaxidi on a windy day.

(Photo by G. Bearzi)

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)

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)

Getting social

Striped dolphins getting social: breaches and much physical contact among group members.

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

Sea turtle stranded in Galaxidi

Today we found a stranded loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta... right in the port of Galaxidi.

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

Survey effort in the Gulf of Corinth

While the Gulf of Corinth is a relatively large area (2,400 km2) to be surveyed with small boats, and often wavy, we try to cover it as best we can searching for dolphins and other fauna. Survey effort in this area has reached 34,000 km. The map shows our navigation tracks in years 2011–2015.

For more information about our dolphin research in the Gulf of Corinth, click HERE.

(Photo by G. Bearzi)