It's Dolphin and Whale season in St. Maarten / St. Martin

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teamoctopus

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Location
Grand Case, St. Martin, French West Indies
# of dives
I'm a Fish!
If you ever wanted a chance to have a Dolphin encounter underwater, while Scuba Diving, St. Martin / St. Maarten is becoming an excellent choice for the Caribbean especially with Octopus Diving - Scuba Dive and Snorkel in St Martin / St Maarten


We don't have a Dolphin petting area and we are currently protesting against such a thing on the Island with Dolphin Defenders. However due to our vast knowledge of all the dive sites, we know where to find these amazing Mammals and after years of diving in St. Maarten / St. Martin's beautiful Caribbean waters we are beginning to understand their feeding patterns and feeding times.


What is it like to see Dolphins Underwater?



It's a totally overwhelming experience, remember that adults are huge, 8 feet long and can even be 2-3 feet in diameter so they will dwarf most divers underwater. Usually one adult will swim very close to you and the rest of the Pod will stay in the background, especially if there are younger Dolphins in the Pod. Usually you will hear them before you see them, unless they are hunting.
We have never witnessed them acting aggressively towards us or anyone else and have had nothing but pleasant experiences.



If they are comfortable with you and want to stay close by, they will demonstrate how they can exceed your Dive computers ascent rate over and over again by shooting to the surface, doing a somersault and heading straight back down. This repeats itself and the Dolphin doesn't get bent... how annoying is that!!

How do people react?


Everybody reacts differently to sightings and peoples reactions are interesting to say the least. I remember a good Friend of mine picking up two rocks and banging them together..... we had no idea what he was trying to do and upon surfacing he had no idea either!! Other people try to touch the Dolphins..... this of course is frowned upon and clearly explained in the briefing – even if you do try to touch a Dolphin they won't let you get close enough anyway and we always do our best to stop it underwater. I know it sounds mean to our divers, but most people have Sun cream on their hands (who knows what else?) which can harm the Dolphins.

The best way to react to a sighting is to remain calm, still and just let them come to you.


One of our awesome return customers Glen was diving with us on February 18th 2012. We were at Basse Espagnole Basse Espagnole | Octopus Diving | Scuba Dive & Snorkel St Martin / St Maarten on the French side of St. Martin where 3 Dolphins followed us throughout the dive for around an hour.

Immediately after the dive still in all his gear, sat on the back of the boat and with a tear in his eye he said “Well, that was my life long ambition fulfilled, thanks Guy's”

This is the kind of affect that it has on most people, it's a kind of life changing moment.

When can you see Dolphins?

Between Mid January to late April we see them regularly and between Feb and May its virtually a daily occurrence. Water Temp is usually 75 - 76 degrees.
Last year in 2011 we saw Dolphins year round, with sightings in June, July, August and September.
This is unusual because the water temperature is usually too high for Dolphins at 90 degrees. They seem to prefer cooler water, but for some reason one pod stayed around - lucky for us!!

Whales too??

Yep, between February and April we start to see Humpback whales with daily sightings. Scuba Diving with them isn't common, but we do see them up close and personal on the surface.
Usually we get Humpbacks but we have started seeing more and more Pilot Whales, Minke Whales and even Whale Sharks.....

Due to the Islands Geographical location (So close to the Atlantic) it seems that St. Martin / St. Martin does attract these beautiful creatures in larger numbers than we ever thought possible.

What are Mobula?

This year we had a pair of Devil Rays (Mobula) living in Grand Case Bay French Side Beaches | Octopus Diving | Scuba Dive & Snorkel St Martin / St Maarten literally outside our dive shop where we keep our boats. We would get back from an awesome dive and as we moor up a Devil Ray would swim past, do a quick flip in the water and swim off up the beach... this is just an awesome sight and we pray they return this year!!

For more information contact sally@octopusdiving.com

Check out our awesome website Octopus Diving - Scuba Dive and Snorkel in St Martin / St Maarten

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Or call us to reserve on our US number 1-914-487-1315 we book super fast so reservations ahead of time are a must!
 
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