One of the most popular activities for visitors to Hawaii is to swim with dolphins. For many it can be a highlight of their trip and even the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, if not a life changing experience. The encounter with our marine friends can also be disappointing if the expectations are set too high and are crowded with myths and misunderstandings.
The safest way to visit with the local cetaceans is to meet them in a pool under the guidance of a trainer. Programs are offered, for example, by the Sea Life Park and the Kahala Mandarin Hotel on Oahu or the Hilton Waikoloa on the Kona side of the Big Island. Usually those encounters take about one hour, during which you’ll enter the water in a life vest and with a guide who will walk and swim you through it. After hearing everything important about dolphins, you’ll get the chance to touch them and, if the dolphin is okay with it, he or she will let you hang onto the fin and pull you through the water. Those dolphins are usually bottlenose dolphins, who are known for their friendly interaction with humans. They are well fed and trained. However, their life expectancy is much shorter in captivity than in the wild.
Things get a little more complicated when you want to hang out with wild dolphins. Every island has spots that are the preferred playgrounds for Hawaiian spinner dolphins, who are the most common in the waters here. They are much smaller than their better known cousins and only reach to about 7 feet in length, whereas the bottlenose “Flipper” dolphins can grow to a proud 12 feet.
The spinner dolphins got their name due to their acrobatic jumps high into the air and spinning around their own axis. They can easily be recognized by their darker back and white belly, which turns pink when they are happy. They travel in pods, usually you see about 20 or 30 in a group. At night they feed in deeper waters and return to protected, shallower areas and bays in the early morning hours to rest, mate and play.
Dolphins never sleep. It would be deadly for them. They have to keep moving to breathe and to be alert enough to escape a possible attack. When they rest they can switch off one side of their brain to stay in motion. This is where the doomed word comes in, that most tour companies avoid like the plague.
Yes, there are sharks out there. And sharks like dolphins. They are high on their menu just like turtles and seals. One of the most dangerous myths is that dolphins will scare away a shark and even protect humans from them. Every now and then we read about such a rescue story and they do happen, but it is a rare occasion and only done by the fearless and strong bottlenose dolphins. Spinners take the other approach and propel themselves out of the danger zone in an amazing speed.
Many tour boats offer excursions to the wild dolphins on all islands. These tours start very early in the morning and take you to their resting grounds, where, if all looks safe, you get a life vest, mask and snorkel and take the plunge into the big blue. I have to admit that I had tears in my eyes on my first wild dolphin swim. It can be a very moving and humbling experience that puts the rest of the world into perspective. You float on the surface of the ocean and before you see them you can hear them exchanging their messages under water. Then out of the depth come these huge bodies that seem to fly weightlessly through the ocean and it just takes your breath away. On one occasion I was eye to eye with a newborn dolphin whose curiosity about the human guests was slowed down by its family that protectively surrounded their little ones.
When the dolphins are well rested and you just catch them in their play mood, they will check you out, surround you, even jump over you and show off all of their tricks. But there is no guarantee for this. More and more often, due to an increased number of visitors and just too many tour boats, the dolphins show signs of stress and don’t stay in one place for too long. On Oahu they like to roam especially on the Leeward side, starting their daily wandering at Kaena Point, then gathering in the bays of Makaha and Waianae all the way to the Ko’olina resort.
The boats are often in contact with each other and have their detection devices on board so that they are able to follow to movements of the pods. Sometimes, however, the dolphins are already gone by the time you hit the water and all you see is a bunch of disappearing tail fins.
These organized trips always offer part of the tour as a snorkeling experience in a nearby reef, to dampen the disappointment if the dolphins were too shy. None of them guarantees a swim with them, and they do their best to avoid any legal issues due to the protected status of wild dolphins.
If you decide to book one of the excursions, be aware that you might just see them from the boat. The water might not allow for much visibility on some days, and the moods of the dolphins are unpredictable. They are still wild and not always playful. And please respect their privacy. Do not approach them, or they will turn away from you. Do not chase them with your underwater camera; they are better swimmers than you and will get away before you even find the exposure button. They do not want to be touched, and you cannot feed them or ride on them. Any kind of harassment to wild dolphins is illegal. The trend now is to offer “observation only” excursions which still bring you close to the dolphins but lessen the stress on them.
The third option, although the most dangerous one, is to find them on your own and to swim or paddle out to them. This requires you to be an exceptionally good swimmer with a lot of patience and endurance. If everything goes well, this can be the purest and most exciting form to become a part of nature — for a little while at least. Interacting with wild animals of this size, who respond to us and won’t hurt us almost has a spiritual quality. It would make me a hypocrite to try talking you out of this, since I still enjoy these dolphin moments myself every now and then. However, you have to be aware of the dangers and the dos and don’ts. I sometimes break my own rules and do swim out to them all by myself, drawn by the fascination of their presence and having frequent attacks of feeling like a mermaid.
But the ocean is not our element no matter how much we want it to be. There can be very, very scary moments when the pod of dolphins suddenly zooms off into the ocean and you find yourself alone over an endless abyss of water, not knowing what might have caused their sudden disappearance. When they take a quick hike there is usually a reason and you better have your speed fins on and get back to shore as fast as you can. Believe me, it is frightening and you immediately hear that famous movie melody (you know which one I mean) in your mind expecting a nibble on your toes or worse every moment. Always have a partner with you and preferably a kayak or a boat. A surfboard won’t help much in case of danger. Wear the right gear: fins, mask and snorkel to see your surroundings and to be able to gain some speed. Do not go out at night or at dawn and never in murky waters. And again, let the dolphins do their thing. Let them approach you and do not swim towards them in a hectic way, do not splash in panic or infringe on their space. Just stay calm and enjoy their intriguing presence. It is also not a good idea to dive down into the pod as it makes you much more vulnerable in case of a shark attack. They WILL take off at lightning speed and you would be right in the target zone. This is a rare occasion but it has happened in the past.
There is no reported case that spinner dolphins ever showed aggressive behavior towards humans; it is their predators that can harm us. However, every now and then dolphins (bottlenose are famous for this) can become a touch too friendly and include us in their mating dance. They do not discriminate between gender or species. A friend of mine encountered a rather amorous wild dolphin once, who at first showed off a little underwater tango and then inched closer and closer until he playfully rubbed against her. It may sound funny, but it can be quite intimidating to be hit on by a marine mammal.
Good spots to see and say Aloha to wild dolphins is around Makaha on Oahu, in Yokohama Bay or Pokai Bay and on the Big Island they like to frolic in Kealakekua Bay early in the morning and then move down to the City of Refuge, the Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Park south of Kona. The latter has, by the way, an exquisite snorkeling area with an amazing underwater canyon, healthy coral and an unbelievable amount of tropical fish.
Whichever option of meeting the dolphins you choose, use your common sense and stay respectful to them and don’t challenge yourself. Stay safe and – when in doubt, don’t go out.
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