New Quay Boat Trips Blog

Bottlenose dolphins are kings of communication! They send each other messages in different ways – they squeak and whistle and also use body language, leaping out of the water, snapping their jaws and even butting heads! These magnificent mammals also produce high-pitched clicks to help them navigate and find food – a process called “echolocation“….

Although they live underwater, the bottlenose dolphin must come up to the surface to breathe air. It breathes through what is called a “blowhole“, a hole at the top of its head. These clever creatures can open this hole when inhaling and exhaling out of the water, and close it when below the ocean surface….

Bottlenose dolphins are super swimmers, gliding through the water using their curved dorsal fin on their back, a powerful tail and pointed flippers. They can reach speeds over 30km an hour and dive as deep as 250m below the surface! These cool creatures are awesome acrobats, too, and can be seen flipping (or “breaching“) out of the…

Bottlenose dolphins can weigh more than 400 kilos and grow to about 13 ft (4 m) in length, cruising at around 6.2 mi (10km) per hour with a maximum speed of 25 mi (40km) per hour. These intelligent, playful, and extremely sociable animals live for more than 40 years, producing only one calf in three years. Newborn calves weigh approximately 20 kg (44 lbs.) Bottlenose dolphins are light to dark gray over their dorsal surface, fading into a white or cream along their ventral region. They have a streamlined fusiform body shape. The source of their common name, bottlenose dolphins exhibit a pronounced anterior rostrum (often referred to as a beak)

The best time to see dolphins in Cardigan Bay is the summer months between May and September which also coincides with the main calving season. Bottlenose dolphins are spotted throughout the bay but it is generally easier to do so in the southern Cardigan Bay SAC. Cardigan Bay is a haven for marine wildlife and is known…