Safari 25th Sept 2024
Now this is what we call a multi-species feeding aggregation! 🍽️ Not one, not two, but SEVEN different species feeding together here in this video from a safari last week 🤩 This aggregation includes tohorā (Bryde's whale), aihe (common dolphin), mohi (pilchard), tākapu (Australasian gannet), pakahā (fluttering shearwater), rako (Buller's shearwater), and tara (white-fronted tern). If you look closely, you can see pilchards flopping around on the back of the whale! 🐟🐋
Over 22 species of whales and dolphins and at least 70 species of seabirds can be seen in Tīkapa Moana/the Hauraki Gulf - we’d love to see you onboard soon to show you what the Gulf has got 👋
Our much loved vessel Dolphin Explorer is having some scheduled maintenance for the next few weeks. We'll all miss being on the water daily for Safari's, but look forward to springing back into it with a new lease of life.
@izabella_sk
We're always in our golden hour while out on Tīkapa Moana ✨🌊
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26th March 2024 Afternoon Safari
One of these things is not like the other ... 😜 Tuesday's afternoon safari featuring a psudeo orca 🐬
We thought we'd share a video of Friday's Orca encounter. This really shows how tranquil the conditions and the pod were. We were all very happy and grateful to be drifting alongside them. Wait untill the end for the large Male's fin to surface. Male Orca fins are considerably larger than females, being up to 1.8m tall! 🐼🐬
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Here's a sight we don't see too often - thousands of common dolphins surrounding the Dolphin Explorer 🐬On Friday we had calves and juveniles swimming amongst all the adults, breaching and chin slapping in the choppy waves 🌊
Safari 22nd Feb 2024
The Hauraki Gulf is buzzing with life! 🌊 In Feb we came across a pod of false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins together. It is rare for us to see these animals in the Hauraki Gulf, with only a few sightings a year. The pod were hunting, breaching, and swimming around the boat as they fed.
The False killer whale is scientifically known as Pseudorca crassidens. Pseudorca relates to its common name, meaning "false orca/killer whale" and crassidens means "thick toothed" 🦷
Monday 22nd Jan Safari
Monday last week, passengers on both safaris were lucky enough to encounter oceanic Manta Rays feeding alongside Bryde's whales 🐋 Following @mantawatchnewzealand best practice guide to ensure we didn't disrupt the feeding activity, we were delighted to see the manta somersault feeding around the vessel 😍 and the best part about the manta trusting us was that we managed to collect some epic data to contribute to oceanic manta ray conservation in Aotearoa. Shout out to the awesome passengers who submitted their footage for the database too 💙
Oceanic manta rays are currently classed as data deficient in Aotearoa so any data collected is critical! If you see a manta ray while you're out on the water, remember to take down the date/time, GPS coordinates and photos/videos if you can.
Here's to more manta-tastic safaris 🤩
Safari 8th Jan 2024
At the beginning of this week we captured a short video of the gannets and dolphins feeding, and our crew member Ben giving the passengers a bit of info on Gannet diving! 🌊🐟
The start of Summer means we've had lots of encounters with nursery pods of common dolphins lately. We call a pod with neonates or calves a nursery pod and the team always enjoy spotting newborns amongst the group. They are super cute! Here's a recent encounter with some commentary from one of our awesome crew George!
Safari Tues 22nd Nov 2023
We had a beautiful day yesterday out on Tīkapa Moana ☀️ the dolphins bow riding the Dolphin Explorer is always awesome to see 🌊🐬
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Amazing sighting today of a pod of resident orca including Funky Monkey and Pickle 🐋 We were able to identify some individuals by looking at their dorsal fin (the fin on the centre of their back). Some have notches/dents on the side, others have different shapes and sizes, and each dorsal is unique to the individual 🔍 Today we estimated that we had 12 orca in total dispersed around us, exciting the crew and passengers as they swam past 😍
A large pod of lively Aihe - Common Dolphins gave us a fantastic viewing today with feeding activity switching to travelling mode all around us! 🐬 It sure is challenging trying to get a count estimate on so many dolphins for our research data collection! 😅📋
Safari Wed 18th Oct 2023
Today our passengers and crew were absolutely delighted to come across not one, not two, but THREE marine mammals in one viewing! 🎉 We first noticed 2 whales feeding amongst common dolphins and then, out of nowhere, a pod of about 10 orcas came to join the fun! 🐋 Our skipper Jo has been working on the boat for more than 17 years and has never seen anything like this before! A truly magical day enjoying the taonga of Tīkapa Moana 🙌💙
15th Oct 2023 Safari
Yesterday we had a mind-blowing encounter with a superpod of dolphins! 🐬 Tīkapa Moana was bursting with life, with dolphins as far as the eye could see - we estimate the pod was at least 1000, but it was probably closer to 4000! The crew and passengers onboard were totally lost for words, we'd never seen anything like it 😍😍
