A trio of playful dolphins jump in front of Capt. Dave Anderson's catamaran on a recent dolphin safari near Dana Point. 'We have a living, breathing, moving Yosemite off our coast, and people that live here are unaware of it,' Anderson says. ANDY TEMPLETON, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

By DAVE STREGE
The Orange County Register

DANA POINT – Dolphins jumping out of the water. Dolphins surfing the wake. Dolphins feeding. Dolphins mating. Dolphins swimming with the catamaran.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dolphins. Everywhere!

If you're thinking Hawaii or Florida, where most folks believe the highest concentrations of dolphins are found, you aren't close.

No, this Discovery Channel-like episode occurs daily off our coast - live, up-close and personal.

"Isn't this amazing?" passenger Paul Kim of Laurel, Md., said Wednesday as dolphins frolicked all around the boat. "Why don't people come out and do more of this? I can't believe it."

Capt. Dave's Dolphin Safari in Dana Point, featuring a catamaran sailboat, is the only known charter business designed to take people out to see the dolphins at Orange County's doorstep.

Once the whale-watching season ends, the sportfishing landings send their boats out fishing. The whales might be gone, but the dolphins remain year-round, and Dave Anderson takes advantage with daily trips just a few miles off Dana Point.

Few people know that California has about 400,000 dolphins – more than Florida, Alaska and Hawaii combined, Anderson said. Or few people care.

"Dolphins are like the booby prize if they don't see a whale," Anderson told a group of six passengers as the 35-foot catamaran motored out to sea. "When I take people out to show them whales and dolphins, I ask them afterward what they liked most and they almost always say, 99.9 percent of the time, they like the dolphins best.

"We have a living, breathing, moving Yosemite off our coast, and people that live here are unaware of it."

The seas were calm and the skies overcast as Anderson scouted the horizon for signs of life. He said they saw a nice pod of 1,000 dolphins the day before. "Hopefully, we'll be able to relocate them," he said.

It didn't take long. Minutes later, Anderson spotted some jumping in the distance. The show would soon begin.

"They're the only animal in the world that'll come over to you to play," Anderson said. "Not to find food, but to interact with another species."

As if on cue, the dolphins started racing alongside and zigzagging in front of the boat, putting on a spectacular show.

"Wow," said Tiffany Larson of Bend, Ore. "They're everywhere."

Passengers stand on the hull and get so close to the dolphins they can almost reach out and touch them. You can even hear their voices - a high-pitched squeaking.

Inside the cockpit, a screen shows dolphins swimming in and out of view.

What's different about viewing dolphins from the catamaran compared to the sportboats used for whale watching is the intimacy.

"That's what the boat is all about," Anderson said, adding that it's like getting down on the floor to be at eye level with a child.

The smaller boat is not intimidating and doesn't disturb the dolphins, who are quickly drawn to it. You'd think these animals were paid performers.

They rarely miss a performance. The odds of seeing dolphins on a given day are pretty good – an 85 percent success rate for the 2-1/2-hour trips. The show Wednesday was a hit.

As were the others, Larson was impressed. She had seen dolphins in the wild before when living in Hawaii.

"But never this many. They're just everywhere," she said. "And never this close before. The last time I saw a dolphin this close was at Sea World."

Like Sea World, Orange County's dolphin playground is open daily, and worth checking out.

Back to Dolphin Safari.com