Located on the coastline of the Arabian Gulf, Dubai is famous for its warm blue and turquoise waters. Aside from just forming Dubai’s beautiful beaches, these waters are home to some of the world’s most awe-inspiring marine life. From coral reefs to humpback whales and everything in between can be found in and around the waters of Dubai.
At HERO OdySea, we give people an opportunity to explore these waters, and often times, guests are rewarded with once in a lifetime encounters with some of the local marine life.
While it’s normal for guests to see schools of jellyfish, sea turtles, or even stingrays, a group of our guests recently got an extra special experience. While conducting our normal morning tour, we got an up-close encounter with a pod of Bottlenose dolphins.
At first, it may be surprising that there are dolphins in the Middle East, but there are actually 3 species of dolphins found in Dubai. The Bottlenose Dolphin, the Humpback Dolphin, and the Finless Porpoise are all native to the Arabian Gulf. Despite calling Dubai home, actually spotting a dolphin, let alone an entire pod, can be somewhat rare.
When asked about the encounter, our HERO Guide, Brandon, said, “It was a morning booking with a Singaporean couple, lovely guests that wanted more ride time than story and photo stops. After going around Burj Al Arab and Atlantis we still had a lot of time due to not stopping. On the way back, I noticed a fin and thought nothing of it, and so we continued south-east as we were going back to the fishing harbour. Suddenly a pod of 15-20 dolphins starting jumping out the water getting nice and close to us. We stayed there for around 20 minutes getting photos and videos, and just savouring the moment before continuing back to the harbour.”
In the past, our guests (and our guides) have been lucky enough to spot some amazing aquatic animals, but the recent dolphin encounter is definitely one to be remembered!