Chizi The Lone Ranger

Between blazing sun, turbulent waters and a few nauseous stomachs, Shafii spots our first and only sighting of the day. With the boat bobbing up and down like a yo-yo Kate calls out “dolphin, dolphin!” and everyone rushes to one side of the boat to take a look at the sighting. The unique nicks on the dorsal fin gave the game up straight away, it was the infamous Chizi, swimming along on a lazy Monday morning is its world under the sea.

Chizi is an easily recognisable bottlenose dolphin individual owing to the extensive pattern of nicks on the trailing edge of its dorsal fin

Chizi means ‘crazy’ in Swahilli however the bottlenose dolphin was not living up to its name on this particular sighting, which lasted approximately 10 minutes. In that time Chizi was not in a playful mood, no peduncle dives or cheeky tail flips in sight! One other tourist dhow full of extended lenses and safari hats nearly capsized their boat trying to photograph the lonesome Chizi. We spotted the dolphin just off the east side of Kisite Island travelling along by itself, an unusual event for an individual not normally seen by itself!

After Andy captured some good photos and Chizi had been down for a while we decided to end the sighting and return to the rocky waters and samosa time. This has been GVI’s second sighting of Chizi this expedition.

Chizi The Lone Ranger