Explore Tours
This tour takes you to the fishing village of Kizimkazi along the southwest coast of Zanzibar. On arrival at Kizimkazi you will have a brief talk about the behaviour and different types of dolphins before proceeding to the dolphins’ locations with an 80% chance of seeing them. There is a fair chance you will get to swim near them, returning to your hotel in the afternoon.
Stressed Dolphins
On the South Coast of Zanzibar at Kizimkazi, there is a growing industry springing up around large resident pods of humpbacked and bottlenose dolphins. Local fishermen and villagers recognised the financial potential a few years ago and are using their boats to take tourists to swim with the dolphins. Since that time, various marine biologists and projects have tried to monitor the dolphins’ behaviour patterns around the boats and the tourists. The present researcher assesses that these dolphins are much stressed due to the uncontrolled jostling and chasing of boat operators. An Official Code of Conduct when diving and swimming around dolphins is in progress by the Institute of Marine Sciences (University of Dar Es Salaam), Zanzibar, based in Stone Town. This is good news and will help educate the fishermen and paying visitors showing them how to enjoy the dolphins and minimize the damage to their natural behavioural patterns.
Tour summary
If you do go swimming with the dolphins, here are a few tips: Try to enter the water as silently as possible, a big splash may get a laugh from the onlookers but the dolphins will be far gone. Let them approach you – you’ve got no chance of catching up with them.
