It's mid-afternoon and our boat is gently undulating in the calm, cobalt-blue waters off Opunohu Bay on Moorea's famous north coast. Day 2 shore excursion on the week-long Tahiti Dream (Papete to Papeete) Windstar Cruise star wind In March 2024, a group of about 12 of us, will set off to watch the activities of the island's resident spinner dolphins.
Our tour guide? Only one of the world's foremost experts, American marine biologist Dr. Michael Poole, aka Dr. Dolphin.
Poole became the first scientist to study dolphins and whales in French Polynesia starting in 1987, and in 1992 he began offering ecotours – the first of its kind in the country – to fund his research. Eager to share his knowledge, his tours were popular with locals and tourists alike from the start.
“At twelve o'clock, the dolphins are between us and the ship!” he said excitedly, as if it was his first time to see spinner dolphins.
We follow his gaze to the tightly packed dark gray dorsal fins, which rise and fall in unison, their tiny bodies catching the sun with each rhythmic resurface.
As agile and compact as a gymnast, they are one of the smallest ocean dolphin species — up to 7 feet, 200 pounds long, Poole said. By comparison, bottlenose dolphins like flippers are twice as long and six times heavier.
“Spinner dolphins are the most skilled fliers in the world, making more jumps and more types of jumps than any other species,” he said. “And they are the only animals that can spin like a ballerina.”
A spinner dolphin leaped into the air near our bow, spinning in a flash of gray before splashing into the water. With every subsequent spin, we sang in chorus of “oohs” and “aahs.”
The dolphins are nocturnal hunters and last night the dolphins, which dived to depths of 300 to 400 meters (100 layers underwater), were in their socializing period, Poole said. It's basically a victory dance, like we did after winning the big game in high school.
“We celebrated the victory. 'We are the champions! We won this big game last night!'” he said. “Then we crashed.”
After a nap, he said, they would do more activities to boost their adrenaline and prepare for the next “big game.”
“The dolphins do a pep rally before heading out to sea for their nightly forage,” he said. “They'll spin around in the air and jump over each other.”
“Guys, it was a very successful trip!” he joked, having just begun the tour. “We're going back!”
“Wait. How long will this take?” one woman asked.
“It's a three-hour trip,” Poole said. “The name of this ship is minnow“.
Everyone was laughing except my two teenage sons, one 18 and one 16, who were too young to appreciate it Gilligan's Island and the antics of seven crazy characters trying to survive on a deserted island. I thought to myself that Gilligan, Skipper and the others would be happy to be “trapped” in a place like Moorea.
Nicknamed “Tahiti's little sister,” Moorea is only a 35-minute ferry ride away, but Moorea may not have the same brand recognition as Tahiti or Bora Bora. But if Tahiti is the bigger, more sophisticated sister that craves bustling streets, cultural hubs and fine dining, then Moorea is the sporty sister in shorts and flip-flops, ready for adventure.
Moorea is a heart-shaped island about one-eighth the size of Tahiti, with Moorea's iconic north coast spanning arched “lobes” of the heart, with two indentations in each bay: Cook Island to the east of the sacred mountain Mount Rotui; 'Ōpūnohu to the west.
Poole is everything you'd expect from a marine biologist who has lived on Moorea for nearly 40 years: barefoot, wearing a white T-shirt and swimming trunks, and a faded baseball cap covering his shoulder-length brown hair.
We asked him lots of questions and he answered them like an old friend while keeping an eye out for spinner dolphins.
How did you learn French? Why do spinner dolphins spin?
Answer: He used an English-French dictionary to woo his Tahitian wife, who eventually admitted she was studying English in school. (They married in 1990.) We don't know why spinner dolphins spin, but we have an idea that it's baked into their genome, much like male dogs instinctively…
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