According to Robin Baird, Director of the Pacific Whale Foundation's Wild Dolphin Research Team, at least eight species of dolphin have been seen throughout the Hawaiian archipelago. The dolphins that you're likely to encounter around Maui County are the bottlenose dolphin, the spinner dolphin, and the spoted dolphin.
Bottlenost dolphins have the appearance that most people associae with dolphins.
Their coloring is charcoal gray fading to light grey on the belly, and their noses are short and shaped like stubby bottles. Bottlenose are usually found swimming in groups of two to twelve animals. Researchers don't know why these dolphins spin, but theorize that it may be a way to communicate their location within a school to each other. Relatively petite, spinner dolphins average five to six feet in length and weigh less than 200 pounds. This coloring, which scientists call countershading, provides a form of camouflage.