Apparently even dolphins from out of town have heard that southern Israel has something to offer in the way of tourism and summer fun: a pod of about 40 dolphins was spotted Wednesday about 800 meters from the coast, of the Grey Grampus (G. griseus) or Risso’s Dolphin type.
They were observed while swimming at the head of the Gulf of Eilat by a supervisor with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Assaf Zevuloni, a Gulf ecologist at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, said the dolphins were relatively large, about four meters long.
“Because the slope is very steep in the Gulf, the dolphins were observed swimming relatively close to the coastline,” he said.
One of the photographs shows a mother and her pup, with the mother helping her new baby to float on the water so she can breathe, as dolphins are mammals.
These dolphins appear to have white markings on their bodies that appears almost like white scarring on their grey skin. They are usually found in deep oceanic and continental slope waters, albeit widely distributed around the world, but they are rarely seen in Eilat. Adults are large, and can be at least 3.8 meters long, with a maximum recorded at about 400 kg, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the United Nations.
http://www.fao.org/fishery/species/2738/en