Denham Bay (near Dent Rapids), BC, Canada / September 2014 –

I feel blessed to have the friends that I have. I believe you can’t buy happiness but you can sure share it. And that’s the way I’ve always perceived it to be with friends and family. Friends are part of the team that makes life so fascinating. I like to share in my friends’ successes and shoulder some of their failures. It’s a two way street. My friends’ lives add dimension and meaning to mine. We get to share our triumphs amongst ourselves.

One of my friends from way back, grade seven actually, is a seasoned mariner. We call him Captain John. He’s operated his own tugboat business on the west coast of Canada for almost forty years. And his philosophy compliments mine a lot. Several years back, he wanted to take a whole bunch of us (class mates from high school) on a boat trip north to show us places he felt privileged to have explored while working his trade. It was an amazing adventure. This photo was taken on the third such trip with him. It was also the best one for wildlife and weather.

We were about five or six days into a ten day trip when we came upon about 70 or so pacific white sided dolphins. They were basically playing and possibly feeding a bit. Lighting conditions were near ideal and I was able to capture several images of them plying the waters. In this particular photo, taken with my motor drive on, the one dolphin came out of the water about 12 feet or more. I caught him at the zenith of his arc, but also with his buddies in mid air too!

These dolphins are wonderful creatures with apparent personalities and human like characteristics. My first experience with them was up at Langara Island, in Haida Gwaii (with the Alaska Panhandle viewable on a clear day). They communicate and love to play and they all seem to support each other, as friends and family should. I just don’t understand why the Japanese and other cultures butcher them for meat when there are so many other fish in the sea. They are, after all, magnificent and intelligent fun loving mammals. But I also believe there’s hope that this will change. We humans appear to be an evolving species trending for the better. Today’s digital world helps to get the word out and expose what corporations and governments don’t want us to know. Power to the people. We have the technology!

There will be other animals and amazing scenery that I will share from these boat trips, including a grizzly bear swimming, some killer whales, and more dolphins. So stay tuned!