12 September 2009

Pira on holidays


Pira is a male bottlenose dolphin who has been seen regularly around the island of Kalamos, Greece, for 15 consecutive years. He has been there since 1993 and is considered one of the most resident dolphins.

In April 2009 we spotted him in the Bay of Itea, Gulf of Corinth, where Tethys has recently started a new reserch project. To get there, Pira had travelled approximately 170 km.

After April, we did not manage to find Pira again despite extensive surveys in the central Gulf of Corinth. We started making jokes such as ‘Maybe Pira came here on holidays and now he is back in Kalamos’. Well... he was! In July and September he was seen again around Kalamos together with his old bottlenose dolphin friends. He had made a 170 km round trip along the Ionian coast of Greece.

Silvia Bonizzoni

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