By the Dozen

Diving in Gorontalo brings surprises every day. On the way to the second dive site this morning, we encountered several pods of Risso’s dolphins, basking on the surface and shallow diving. One was even a baby! Risso’s lack a protruding nose and become whiter in color with age. Distinctive scarring occurs when attacking deep-sea squid and when fighting with each other. Risso’s are found in tropical and warm temperate waters worldwide but usually sighted only in deep waters near the continental shelf edge. That edge comes within a few meters of land in Gorontalo, which has resident pods of these shy cetaceans.

In addition to dozens of dolphins, by special request we went in search of boxer crabs and stopped counting after finding eleven.