Tim writes: here are two Hourglass Dolphins belting through the water alongside our ship. You cannot quite see the wavy, white hourglass flank marking that gives rise to the name on these individuals.
They are only found in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters, usually in deep water. We saw several groups coming to bow-ride our ship for a minute or two before getting bored and swimming off. Wikipedia suggests they are a rare dolphin and I quote Wiki verbatim here “The dolphin has rarely been seen. It was identified as a new species by Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1824 from a drawing made in the South Pacific in 1820. It is the only cetacean to have been widely accepted as a species solely on witness accounts. By 1960, despite decades of whaling in the Southern Ocean, only three specimens had been recovered. As of 2010 only 6 complete and 14 partial specimens had been examined. Further information was obtained from 4 strandings and boats which searched for the dolphins in areas rarely visited by ships.”
[registration_form]