Dolphins at Sado River. Portugal

A broad, shallow estuary to the south of Lisboa, of international significance for its breeding and wintering waterbirds and also encompassing well-conserved sand-dune habitats with a rich endemic flora. Looking south from the heights of the Serra da Arrábida, the silver and blue tapestry of the Sado estuary lies glistening in the sun, its mudflats and sandbanks almost completely exposed at low tide, with the aquamarine current of the river Sado itself surging through the narrow gap between the Tróia peninsula and the fishing port of Setúbal. But, no visit to the Reserva Natural do Estuario do Sado is complete without going out to see the dolphins. For an hour and a half we followed the pod of dolphins as they swam slowly toward the mouth of the Sado, a mile-wide outlet to the sea. They spend the day in the open Atlantic and return at night. We went in a small boat, with an outboard motor to allow us to get closer than other boats without disturbing the animals. Seeing the dolphin in the open water was like an extraordinary dance. But the dolphin’s future is far from certain. A large paper factory spews a yellowish haze over the eastern horizon. Hand-lettered signs in the village protest the deadly paper-making biproduct, dioxin, in the local air and water. Some locals reported that these toxins had taken their toll on the golphina population. Each spring several babies are born, but all but one or two died. These are controversies of the modern world.