“Where are the dolphins?” our inquisitive 3-year old companion asked with eyes scanning the horizon.
What’s amusing is that he was looking down the rail over a flight of stairs from our rendezvous point where we were waiting for our companions from Cebu to arrive. We were a bunch of first timers from Cebu and Dumaguete, anticipating seeing real live fins and flippers.
Today, we were going to hunt! Well, not really hunt, more like search, watch and learn from a couple of amazing mammals. The sky was crystal clear despite the cloudy and rainy forecast we’ve had all week. And the anticipation of everyone was on a high.
Our cute companion never left his post as he kept on looking for dolphins to appear from the pavement down below.
Just in time, before he lost all hope of ever seeing a dolphin. Our companions arrived and we were all set to lock and load. It’s dolphin time!
The way to Bais was an hour’s scenic drive from Dumaguete City, the usual and more popular gateway to Negros Oriental. It was a quiet and uneventful ride to Capinyahan wharf, the jump off point for our dolphin tour.
Dolphin watching, or whale watching as it used to be called has been closely associated with Bais City. Its protected harbor and good tourist facilities make it the most convenient take-off point to Tañon Strait, which is the actual habitat of the dolphins. It’s a narrow waterway separating the islands of Negros and Cebu and has one of the highest concentrations of dolphins and whales in the Philippines. Our tour guide explained that this is because of the 300-hectare Talabong Mangrove Reserve bordering the strait. It serves as breeding and nursery grounds for many species of fish thus, providing dolphins lots of chow to munch on.
“We’re going for a short boat ride to Tañon Strait,” began our tour guide, Marissa as she introduced herself.
“When going dolphin watching, you follow four ground rules,” Our guide yelled over the din of the pump boat engine. “First, when you see dolphins, never rush to one side altogether or else the boat will tip over. Keep the weight properly distributed. Second, please don’t jump overboard and swim with the dolphins! (Everyone smiled at this one) Third, don’t touch the dolphins and last, don’t feed the dolphins.” The first two were for our safety and the latter two were to keep the dolphins from losing their natural instinct.
True enough. We haven’t gone more than 20 minutes looking at blue jelly fishes flapping undersea and flying fishes skimming the water when the spotters on the roof deck spied upon a family of dolphins frolicking. And we completely forgot about the first rule. It seems like the dolphin clan were having a picnic! There were baby dolphins alongside mama dolphins (or maybe, they were daddy dolphins) teaching their offspring how to spin in the air. There were a couple of brave ones who swam alongside our boat. They were Spinner dolphins by the way, and we saw one or two Spotted dolphins. Marissa explained that dolphins usually grouped themselves by size, and since the Spinner and Spotted species were of the same size, they went together. While Bottle-nosed dolphins and whales grouped together because they kind of have the same size.
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This meant that we weren’t likely see some whales because there were schools of dolphins around the habitat. We were kind of disappointed because we were hoping to catch sight of some whales, too. Well, you can’t win them all right? Someone in the group theorized that if ever there were no dolphins, maybe it meant that there were sharks. And we were in for a surprise! No, we didn’t see some shark, but we learned that sharks do pass by Tañon Strait, although they never stayed.
When we had our fill of dolphins, we moved on to the sandbar. It’s a small jutting island of white sand in the middle of the sea. I recall faintly Charlene Gonzales’ answer when quizzed about the number of islands that the Philippines had, to which she replied, “High tide or low tide?” This must be one of the islands she was talking about because it disappears during high tide. By the time we got to our cottage, cottage #1, it was almost noon time and the waters have begun to rise. If ever you decide to go dolphin watching, take a plunge at the clear waters surrounding the sandbar. We were treated with eyefuls of tiny colorful fishes. There was even a school of milk fish, what we commonly know as bangus, passing by.
The serenity of the sea—as well as the fact that we had just eaten our scrumptious lunch—lulled us to sleep while a couple of adults kept an eye on the kids playing and swimming around the area. Beside us the 2nd cottage seemed to have the same idea as the picturesque surroundings took its effect and everything grew quieter.
If Tañon Strait opened the eyes to the wonders of creation, then the
sandbar treated the soul to its much needed rest during these hectic and frenzied times of real life. But the best was yet to come! While snacking on sweet and delicious golden mangoes and Tanjay’s famous budbud, our Captain’s trained eye spotted the dolphins spinning and playing with gusto. I have never seen a group become this united in cleaning up! We had agreed to go back to Tañon Strait where things were happening.
The dolphins were having a day out! They were even more playful than that morning. And they treated us to showcases that even our tour guide, our boat captain and his crew were grinning from ear to ear. They spun around, did a couple of what I call the “head bang” (‘coz it looked like they were banging their heads on the water surface), some back flips, and raced with our boat. And for the finale, imagine this: about a hundred of them lined up in front of the stern of the boat and jumped altogether in sync like they were doing water ballet in the Olympics. What a way to end the day!
As one of our friends lamented, “Oh no, I didn’t bring more film!” Then she added, “Never mind, we may not have the pictures, but we’ll always have the memories.”
Every time I hear the name dolphin, I know I’ll always remember to the treat that we were given on that wonderful Dolphin Day.
Charity Oh is a medical technologist by training and a perpetual student of life by calling -- tasting its slices one bite at a time.
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