Hear Them Breathing

Guests from Taiwan, Japan, and Jakarta have seen multiple pods of both Bottlenose and Risso’s dolphins each day. Rarely seen elsewhere, Risso’s dolphins are resident in Gorontalo. They have distinctive white bodies with scaring, black dorsal fin, no nose, and are noticeably larger than Bottlenose. Today on the way to a dive site, a pod of nine Risso’s was sleeping on the surface. We could hear them breathing. At sunset right before the night dive, a pod of Bottlenose were jumping and tail-slapping. The sound of their exhales carried across the still water, colored red by the sunset.