Estebane Rezkallah
Rangiroa Gang
Dolphins in the Pacific Ocean, French Polynesia, 2023
Category - Ocean Worlds
A group of dolphins were jumping and playing in the waves in front of our boat as we crossed Rangiroa in the Tuamotu archipelago, the largest of Polynesia’s atolls and the second largest in the world in terms of the size of its lagoon (with a surface area of over 1,000 km²). Rangiroa is made up of nearly 250 islets interspersed with shallow channels linking the ocean and the lagoon, as well as two passes: Avatoru and Tīputa. That morning, in the Tīputa pass, the tide was at its calmest, which seemed to give the water an extraordinary serenity and clarity. The sun, grazing the horizon, cast a radiant glow on the dolphins, leaping towards the sky. In Tahitian, Rangiroa is also called Ra’iroa, meaning ‘immense sky’. A unique place that is home to an incredible variety of marine species – multicoloured fish, sea turtles and dolphins, among others – in a healthy, unspoilt environment.
35-150 mm f/2-2.8 Lens - 1/1600 sec at f/6.3 ISO 3200