Dolphin Sightings in Goa

Every tourist visiting Goa is almost always tempted in hiring or participating in one of the myriads of dolphin sighting trips offered by local Goan boat owners and dolphin sight-seeing or dolphin sighting trip operators.

Confused tourists ask are dolphin’s fish?

No. Dolphins are not fish. They are Sea Mammals. Though the animal Dolphin does live in the ocean or sea, still it is not exactly a fish. Dolphins are mammals. Like every mammal, dolphins are warm blooded. Unlike fish, who breathe through gills, dolphins inhale air using lungs. Dolphins have to make numerous trips to the surface of the water to catch a breath of oxygen. That is when tourists and nature lovers can spot the dolphins coming right on top of the ocean water for its regular doze of oxygen. The blowhole on top of a dolphin's head acts as a "nose," making it easy for the dolphin to surface for air.

Other physical characteristics of dolphins that categorize them as mammals rather than fish are that they give birth to live young rather than laying eggs and they nurse their young with breast fed milk. Also, like all mammals, dolphins even have a tiny amount of hair, right around the blowhole (or nose), which is a little different than the scales of a fish.

What exactly is a Dolphin Sighting? How does it happen?

Please remember that dolphins cannot be sighted at every beach in Goa. Even dolphins as mammals have their preferences and choices of which beach area to hang around or visit.

Dolphins frequent Sea Oceans in Goa such as:

• Wherever there are headlands, meaning where the land juts into the sea such as at Cabo de Rama, Raj Bhavan, Aguada Fort, Reis Magos Fort, Anjuna hillock, Vagator hillock and similar places.
• Always away from noisy beaches. Dolphins do not like the noise frequencies created even by the idle chatter of human beings.
• Dolphins get wary of any alien (foreign) new noise such as that of the motorboat engine running even in idle condition. Smart dolphin trip operators shut their boat engine completely and tell the tourists also not to shout in joy.
• At Estuaries, meaning where the River meets the Sea. At the confluence of the river and sea meeting point, within these under currents one will notice many dolphins frolicking by. Some of the estuaries are at Miramar beach, Vagator, Baga beach, Nerul beach and many more.
• Dolphins tend to be spotted only in the early morning that is the time that they usually come closer to sea. Rest of the time they venture off into the deep seas. One has to be in the boat on the sea much early than 08.00 am in the morning to spot dolphins in Goa.
• It has not been understood as yet why only the spotting of Dolphins leaves humans more happy and excited. Tourists spotting dolphins in Goa leave exhilarated at having come so close to the friendly dolphins and seeing them splash and play in their natural habitat in Goa.