Since the 70´s and 80´s dolphin research has been conducted in the Bahamas. In that same period dolphinaria popped up all over the world and the movie series "Flipper" made its appearance.

Luckily, nowadays we know better and less and less dolphins are kept in captivity.

Treasure hunters looking for galleons and their bounty used sandblowing machines which would clear the sand off wreck sites, but would also stirr fish and other edible creatures.

Dolphins would often happily come and make use of this banquet.

Denise Herzing started her study on dolphins inspired by researchers like Jane Goodall and Dianne Fossey. Goodall and Fossey studied animals in their natural habitat which was exactly what Herzing wanted to do.

The Bahamas was the ideal study location due to its shallow, warm waters with excellent visibility.

Due to the duration of the research the Bahamian dolphin population is probably the best documented dolphin community in the world.

Luckily for us, over time the dolphins of the Bahamas have become very much used to people in their surroundings.

Especially the Atlantic Spotted dolphins seem to enjoy interaction with humans, probably helped by the abundance of prey which allows them more time to go and have fun..

A special moment during our recent trip was when we encountered a group of bottlenose dolphins "craterfeeding" in about 12 meters of water.

Never had our experience in freediving come in handy so well.

Two male bottlenose dolphins came to check us out after they had sent off the babies and female dolphins.

Once we were accepted they uninterruptedly continued their foraging behavior.

Craterfeeding is incredible and the bottlenose dolphins are so well equipped for the job.

It was pretty damn cool to see how the bottlenose dolphins shaped the underwater landscape with their behavior.

Research also documented that nurse sharks and dolphins have a rather special relationship.

Often we would find nurse sharks following the dolphins as they discard the leftovers of their catch (yes, pretty fuzzy eaters, those dolphins...).

Nurse sharks are the vaccuumcleaners, cleaning the ocean floor after the dolphins!

Lastly we also encountered quite a bit of plastic in the sea. One of the Atlantic spotted dolphins was playing with a single-use plastic bag.

We´d rather see them play with seaweed (which often happens with for example Sargassum weed) than with this disgusting black plastic bag.

The dolphin actually had quite a bit of trouble removing the bag from its mouth since it kept swimming forward which made the plastic float into its mouth..

Luckily it released the bag which Sandy quickly confiscated to be disposed off properly.

Pilot whales are easy to find because they are very particular about their habitat, most probably due to prey abundance in a specific area (they eat mostly squid). 

This makes them an ideal target species for whale watch companies. Whale watching therefore has become a very popular pastime on the busy tourist island of Tenerife.

More and more whale watch vessles (both legal and illegal operators), jet-ski's and giant highspeed ferries plow through this cetacean habitat daily.

Recently researchers have taken up the task of finding out how much impact accoustic polution and human pressure in general have on the stress levels of this population of pilot whales.

Since pilot whales rely largely on sound, especially for finding their prey in the deep sea, they might be more affected than other species.

We are very curious as to what the results will be!

Interested? Follow Asociacion Tonina that is running this research.

Images of this portfolio have been published in the September 2017 edition of Duiken magazine.

All images have been taken under permit.

As mentioned, the key driver behind all this is Planeta Oceano. The NGO is working hard to conserve and restore coastal marine environments by engaging stakeholders like the local communities, but also governmental organizations and other NGO's. We followed its interns and volunteers on the beaches, inside schools and on the sea to document their work.

With Planeta Oceano's dedication and guidance a group of fishermen currently is starting up their ecotourism tours for viewing the mantas and other wildlife in the sea. Many already provide necessary data for the ongoing research efforts of the organization. Sightings of manta rays are recorded and relayed when they are observed. Mantas that get entangled are now released. In case a manta has been accidentally killed in a fishing net then fishermen are urged to share samples for DNA research.

The Manta Club program is focused on Peru's new generations. Making schoolkids more aware of the manta rays and their place in the marine ecosystem should enforce strong committment to the conservation of this species. Volunteers and interns of Planeta Oceano visit schools to talk to the schoolkids about manta rays. Periodically interns measure the knowledge of these schoolkids to assess the programs success. School teachers are happy with the opportunity to teach the kids about the Peruvian wildlife with teaching material provided for Manta Club. Older schoolkids can even join the organization during visits to fishermen to talk about their relationship with the sea and the animals that live in it.

In the meantime Zorritos, which is at the hart of the foraging area of the Manta Rays is turned into Manta Capital by local artists. The son of one of the fishermen has create some amazing murals showing what this town cares about; the mantas.

But, manta rays are not the only giants that inhabit the marine environment around Tumbes. Seasonally giant humpback whales and whalesharks frequent the area. Humpbacks come here to mate and to give birth to their offspring. While mother and calf pairs use these waters for resting and nursing, other whales participate in boisterous heatruns to make up which male is able to mate with a female.

Whalesharks gulp up thousands of liters of plankton rich seawater in the thick green inshore waters, much like the mantas do. Just like mantas they are ramfilter feeders, which means they swim for hours on end with open mouth to filter food from the seawater. The actual filtering of plankton is done using filter pads while the water is pushed out through their gills.

That the work of NGO's like Planeta Oceano is far from over is to be seen in the area. Starting up ecotours from scratch is a longterm process, but the potential is there and the willingness too. Also more is to be learned about the mantas and the way they use these waters, so research is expected to continue in the near future. 

I feel that NGO's in the North of Peru have more to worry about though. Artisanal fishermen complained more than once during our visit about the offshore corporate steered fishing fleets that empty Peru's waters. Fish that do not seem to be destined for Peruvian markets are taken from the Pacific and end up in fishmeal or fishoil.  Usually it is destined for foreign markets like (as all too often) China's. Such overfishing by large industrial fishing fleets offshore, but also the oil and gas industry are known threats to marine wildlife. Lastly, new construction work along the shoreline show a growth of tourism in the Tumbes area with potential negative impact on its wildlife. 

The fires on two big platforms offshore from Zorritos burn bright through the night, while a big tanker awaits her filling on offshore moorings closeby. The oil and gas field off Tumbes is so rich that already new plans have been made to invest in more platforms. In the meantime proposals for making marine reserves in the oil rich area are opposed by oil companies in fear of loss of their investments. With a history of corruption it is not unlikely to think that decisions for development in the area are not taken with all perspectives in mind. Needless to say, a disaster like the oil spill of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico would be devastating for both wildlife as for the many thousands of locals that make their home along the Pacific shoreline.

With a growing ecotourism sector that is going to be able to prove its value I hope decisions for further development of the Tumbes coastline are taken with its wildlife in mind too. I am sure that NGO's like Planeta Oceano are able to make the voice of the Giant Mantas heard in these debates..

Please also find this blogpost about our time in Tumbes.

Update 03-20-2017 - Images of this portfolio were published in the April edition of Duiken Magazine.

Update 28-05-2017 - An image of this portfolio was published in National Geographic.

Divers cut free large parts of a variety of fishing gear (amongst which deadly gillnets) that continue taking a toll on marine life. Ghostfishing is a problem encountered in the NorthSea all too often.

More then once divers get stuck underwater because of the ravel of thick fishing line, much like the animals that also become entangled in the mess we people leave behind.

After the nets are cut free from the wreck sites the divers either put lifting balloons on the nets themselves or they use former postal bags to transport the material to the surface. 

Once lifted on the ship's deck the bags are weighed first to be able to keep track of the amount of removed nets.

Biologists then cooperate with other divers to analyze the life that is found on the removed fishing nets. The different species encountered are analyzed, estimated and samples are taken. 

Most of the time the nets contain a large amount of fishing tackle that sportfishermen have lost when fishing on the wreck sites.

When all analysis is done the nets are put in bigbags, ideally on the helicopter deck since the smell is almost unbearable!

With its incredible passionate team of voluntary support divers, biologists, archeologists and cinematographers the expedition salvaged approximately 2000kg of lost fishing gear.

The debate on the causes of the Crise Requin on Reunion Island is a difficult one. The most accurate way of putting it would be that nobody knows exactly why the attacks happen more often.

People that said they knew the exact reason seemed to be stating wrong explanations or only telling part of the truth. There are however many reasons that I have heard regularly and some of them make more sense than others.

The elimination of the larger sharks on drumlines (mostly bull and tiger sharks, but recently even a Great White shark) is a controversial method that is met with increasing resistance. Resistance is growing due to its tendency to create unwanted bycatch and the already unsustainable levels of overfishing on shark species worldwide. Also, many people state that the drumlines with bait actually bring in sharks from a distance and therefore actually increase the risk of interactions with sharks.

On top of that removing the sharks from the ocean is also negatively affecting shark populations regionally. The sharks from Reunion Island have been tracked to the Southern African coastline were a vibrant shark tourism industry is present. Needless to say shark operators on the African continent are not pleased with the fact that the sharks they make their profit from are killed elsewhere. 

Finally, biologists and scientists indicate that these sharks play a vital role in the marine ecosystem around Reunion and taking them out could well make matters worse..

Please also find the following blogpost on the Crise Requin.

As you might have noticed, Joshua came to the Bahamas with an Aer Lingus plane ;-)

He is growing up on the westcoast of Ireland which is battered by heavy swell and storms during wintertime.

So it must have been a very welcome trip with the family to the sunny Bahamas.

Check out the work from my friend George here. You will not be disappointed.

Watch the video in HD on Vimeo.

Bimini is also home to the Sharklab. It is a research station that for years has been a leading entity in shark research worldwide.

Sharklab hosted a guided tour during our stay which left us all, from 5 years old to grown ups, with lasting impressions.

The talks about the sharks and their behavior were very educative. Also gently touching a real shark and feeling the sandpaper like skin of the fish was pretty amazing.

Images from this portfolio were published in the September 2016 edition of the magazine Duiken showing why this place is heaven for sharks on earth (and for underwater photographers too btw ;-) ).

If you enjoyed reading this:

I posted hammertime, stingray and reefsharks and dolphindance blogposts too that you might want to check out.

Make sure to also watch the little video below that we put together about our adventures in the blue waters and mangroves of Bimini.

Watch the video in HD on Vimeo.

Very recently the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service (department which manages the area) implemented new rules to protect the manatees, especially in the cold winter months when they reside in the warm water of the springs in the refuge.

Exclusion zones should keep humans from harrassing the manatees in certain places where they use to frequent. This is just one of the rules on interaction with the mammals which also has restricted me as a photographer while working with the manatees. 

Also, the department is enforcing the right to close off the Three Sisters Springs when too many manatees decide to reside in the springs.  It is something that does happen more often during the peak of the manatee season.

Not everybody agrees with the new rules and the way the measures are implemented. The many opinions, perspectives and the pro's and cons make the story of the manatees an interesting one. One thing is for sure: all of these measures were implemented to benefit the manatees, while putting more restrictions on the interaction with people.

Please also find this blogpost on our personal experiences with the manatees of Crystal River.

Many images of this portfolio were published in my article for Duiken magazine: "The manatees of Crystal River".

One of the sealion pictures in this portfolio featured on the cover of DIVE magazine in September 2014.

The first image of this portfolio (of the sealion amongst other sealions) won the Frans Lanting Award 2014.

Images in this portfolio of schooling mobula rays went viral on the web in April 2015.

Images in this portfolio of the sealions of Isla Santa Margarita were published by DailyMail in May 2015.