Bottlenose Dolphin

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Bottlenose Dolphin Tursiops truncatus.

This is one of a pod (group) of 6 dolphins that were riding the bow wave created at the front of our ship during a recent Arabian Sea expedition. Bottlenose dolphins, though presumed to be abundant, are not clean out of trouble- they are captured in large numbers for display in oceanaria, marine theme parks and even circuses. This has led to their ecological status being questioned in recent times.

Canon 500D, 18-55mm
SS 1/2000
Av 5.6
ISO 800
This is a very large crop of a single individual from an originally wide image with 3 to 4 dolphins in the frame (hence the quality loss); this image was created specifically for ID purposes. Will share the wide composition shortly.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Wow lovely pose captured. The water splash and the pattern created by the reflection of sunlight on the water look great. You had gone on an expedition from Karwar? How far were these sighted? Thanks for sharing.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Thanks Mrudul. The expedition was from Goa into the northern Arabian Sea and back. This sighting was near the boundary of Indian territorial waters, roughly around 200 miles from the coast of Maharashtra.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Super record abhishek. don't get to see this often... you should post more often buddy...

TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Great to see this species. They are persecuted a lot. I am happy that the Govt. has stopped the dolpinarium proposals. I think you need to reduce contrast and slightly open up shadows. Why 18-55 lens for this? Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Thanks everyone.
Sabyasachi: 18-55 because i was photographing the whole group. I had not intended to make a close-up, this close crop was done only for ID purposes.

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Nice image Abhishek. It must have been a real challenge to capture this image as one has to exactly predict the pattern and take a shot exactly at the time they jump out. Neat work. Thanks for sharing.

[Chitrita Chatterjee]

beautiful.. tfs