Cruise the Pine Island Sound of and the Gulf of Mexico to see Dolphins

With brains bigger than a human’s and a captivating look on their face, dolphins abound in the Pine Island Sound and nearshore and inshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dolphins Captiva Cruises offers dolphin spotting tours. Once found, the dolphins are quick to come alongside and ride the bow waves.

Exactly how smart these cetaceans, the scientific name for the group of animals that includes dolphins, whales, orcas, porpoises and the Arctic narwhal, are is still debated in scientific circles. “Pound for pound, relative to body size, their brains are still among the largest in the animal kingdom — and larger than those of chimpanzees,” Joshua Foer writes for National Geographic.

Here’s some fun facts about dolphins.

They are carnivores. They eat fish and squid, with the occasional octopus and crab thrown in for variety. They don’t chew their food, except to crunch a crab’s shell. They swallow it whole. They are smart enough to avoid fishing lures.

Dolphins are mammals. They breathe air through the top of their heads through the blowhole. When they exhale, this sometimes creates a spray of water from the area round the blowhole and vapor in their breath that condenses when it hits the surrounding air. Because they are mammals, they do have hair, but only a little bit and only when born. The hair is gone within two weeks of birth. Mothers feed their babies milk.

Dolphins and porpoises are different animals. Dolphins have cone-shaped teeth and porpoises have spade-shaped teeth. Science identifies 32 species of saltwater dolphin and five species of porpoise. The nearest freshwater dolphin is found in the Amazon River in South America.

While science continues to study them, visitors to Sea Oats Captiva Island Luxury Estate delight in watching them. CaptivaCruises, among many other charters in the area, offers dolphin spotting tours. Once found, the obliging mammals are quick to come alongside and ride the bow waves, putting on an entertaining show.

If seeing the dolphins in their natural habitat is on your to-do agenda, contact us to see how easy it can be to mark this one as done.