With glassy fins and graceful arches, they break the ocean’s surface, skin glistening, their sleek bodies gliding through the surf with ease. They are regular visitors to the Outer Banks when the days are long and the water warm.
They are bottlenose dolphins, and their friendly nature conjures up comparisons to Flipper and marine park shows, but they are wild and free – creatures of the sea. A glimpse into their untamed environment provides a glimpse into ocean life that never ceases to delight.
Perhaps that’s why dolphin-watching excursions are so popular in this area. These guided boat trips give patrons the opportunity to observe bottlenose dolphins in their natural habitat. Thrilling, spiritual and spectacular are just a few of the adjectives frequently used to describe such encounters! But just what is it about this particular mammal that elicits such interest?
For starters, dolphins rank among the most intelligent of marine mammals, and bottlenose dolphins like the ones on North Carolina’s coast are some of the most researched. Earning their name from the shape of their short, stubby beaks, bottlenose dolphins are found in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They typically weigh 440-600 pounds, live an average of 20 years and reach an average size of 10 feet. They feed on a variety of fish and consume 13 to 33 pounds of food per day.
It is estimated that more than 500 dolphins call the Outer Banks home during the summer months. The summer dolphins arrive in early- to mid-May to give birth to their young. They remain throughout the summer and then migrate south for the winter. But the Outer Banks is also their winter home. It was recently discovered that our summer dolphins, along with all of the bottlenose dolphins who summer north of here all the way to New Jersey, spend their winter between Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout.
You can even identify individual dolphins, if you look really hard. The Nags Head area is the summer home to one of the most important dolphins on the East Coast. “Onion” is his name. Onion was first identified in Beaufort, North Carolina almost 20 years ago, and he has been sighted there almost every winter since. It has been discovered that Nags Head is his summer home, along with an extensive family of more than 100 members. In his early years, Onion had an unfortunate encounter with a boat propeller and his damaged fin has made him one of the most easily recognized dolphins around.
The Outer Banks is an ideal place to take a dolphin boat trip to learn even more about these miraculous creatures. These excursions will get you close enough to safely connect with these incredible animals and to experience them in the wild, in a world where humans are visitors and the bottlenose dolphin is happily at home.
Remember – if you should you encounter a dead or stranded whale, dolphin or seal while on the Outer Banks, call the North Carolina Marine Mammal Stranding Network at 252-728-8762. |
