Spiraling dolphins

Hundreds of them have gathered for the feast. The backs, rostrums and fins of the dolphins breathing seem to cover the sea… But we haven’t seen anything! When Alexandre Poulichot dips the polecam into the water, we see on the control screen that there are ten times more of them under the water! It is madness. The dolphins are swallowing up the tiny fish from the ocean floor that have become totally disorientated by the daylight. The frenzy is extraordinary. They share this small fry with yellow fin tuna and large Mobula rays that dive through the school of fish scooping them up in open mouths.
Once the feast is over, the fun begins: a dolphin launches itself heavenwards like a top. It spins so quickly that the centrifuged water spray envelops it like a muslin cloak. Another springs vertically, “flies” on its back and then launches into a dervish spiral before diving back into the water in a final bouquet of sea foam. It is as though this was the signal the other acrobatic dolphins were waiting for. Spirals, twists, loops, maelstroms of silver droplets… the sea boils. And so it continues until dusk; the dolphins try to outdo each other with their speed, acrobatics and capering, all the better to launch themselves towards the reddening clouds overhead. Then, suddenly, it all stops.
Then, one last dolphin, seemingly already missing this moment of madness, launches itself high into the air framed by the setting sun, and for a few seconds, this dolphin become bird casts its shadow on a seal of gold and silver.

Text and photos by François Sarano / Galateefilms