- Look for splashes, any disturbances in the water, or triangular fins coming in and out of the water. You might also hear them breathe if they are close enough.
- If a dolphin comes straight up from the bottom to the surface, you are likely to see them jump.
How to Identify Different Types of Dolphins:
The three types below are the ones we see most often, though as many as 13 species of odontocetes live in or around Hawaii.
 Spinner:
- Dorsal fins: Triangular shaped
- Rostrum (beak): Very long
- Color: Dark dorsal area (back) and a whitish belly or underside
- Size: Small and slender (5.5’ to 7.5’ in length, average 150 pounds)
- Other: Tends to stay close to shore during the day; often spin when they jump
- Sightings: Regularly
Spotted:
- Dorsal fins: Crescent shaped (curved)
- Rostrum (beak): Very long and often with a white tip
- Color: Have tiny white spots on their back
- Size: Mid-size (6’ to 8.5’ in length, 200 to 250 pounds)
- Other: Tends to stay in deeper waters and in bigger groups
- Sightings: Occasional
Bottlenose:
- Dorsal fins: Crescent shaped
- Rostrum (beak): Very short and stubby
- Color: Dorsal area ranges from dark to charcoal gray, fading to a lighter gray on their flanks and bellies.
- Size: Large (7.5’ to 12’ in length, average 600 to 800 pounds)
- Other: Tends to stay in smaller groups
- Sightings: Occasional
Other friends at sea:
- Green sea turtles (honu) are among the largest in the world and can live over 80 years.
- Humpback whales (kohola) visit our warm waters during the Winter months, to mate and breed.
- False Killer whales are in the same family as dolphins and highly social.
- Flying fish (malolo) use their tail and large pectoral fins to leap out of the water just above the surface – keep a lookout for them, they’re exciting to see but are also very fast!
How to Take Great Dolphin Photos:
If you have a digital camera with a finder, turn off your LCD and take pictures looking through the finder. This will allow the camera to respond to your fingers faster.
Dolphins sometimes jump multiple times, so keep aiming in the direction a dolphin has jumped.
Use the sequence photo shoot mode if your camera has one. It is very hard to predict when the dolphins will surface, so by using this mode there is more chance of you getting a good picture!
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