Common Dolphin (Cape)

Delphinus capensis

Port St. Johns, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Fuji S2 Digital in Subal housing, Nikon 12-24 DX

Common dolphins - marked with a distinct hour glass shape on their sides - are beautiful animals, and they are both stars and the impresarios of the sardine run. The huge shoals of sardines are normally dispersed and in deeper water. Commons - forming superpods of several thousand animals - force large masses of sardines up toward the surface, where they form dense bait balls.

When the sardines are densely massed near the surface, they are attacked from the air by gannets and from below by Bronze whaler and other sharks. The dolphins cooperate in keeping the bait ball from escaping while darting through it to dine.

There are two kinds - the shorter-beaked is known as Delphinus delphis. These are part of a superpod of about 2,000 animals.