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Dauphins de RangiroaFrench Polynesia
Tuamotu · French Polynesia

The bottlenose dolphins of Rangiroa

For seventeen years, a handful of volunteers has been studying and protecting the bottlenose dolphin community of Tiputa Pass.

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17years of monitoring
101dolphins catalogued
+4,000 hof observation
100%volunteer-run
Today's sightings

Today we saw…

Câline, seems sleepy, quietly doing the rounds of the dive groups. Surprisingly, the divers are very well-behaved in her presence, which is most certainly due to our presence in the water!

September 27, 2026
Câline, seems sleepy, quietly doing the rounds of the dive groups. Surprisingly, the divers are very well-behaved in her
What we do

Understand to protect

01

Knowledge

Collecting long-term demographic and behavioral data. Who is here? Who has disappeared? Who is doing what?

02

Conservation

Documenting the effect of tourism activities on dolphin behavior and working with operators to make their practices more sustainable.

03

Awareness

Divers, visitors, school groups, institutions: explaining what non-disruptive observation looks like, and why it matters.

In pictures

The community through the association's lens

Full gallery →

The association

Seventeen years in the same place

The association has been monitoring the same dolphin community since 2009, individual by individual. It is this continuity that allows us to identify what is changing and what is being lost.

  • Knowledge
  • Conservation
  • Awareness

Discover the association

Support us

Support the association

Dauphins de Rangiroa is a fully volunteer-run French non-profit association. It has been monitoring the Tiputa dolphin community for seventeen years.

Field monitoringDaily observation sessions to collect data on the dolphins, both from land and while scuba diving.
Identifying the dolphins and their behaviorsEvery dolphin in the Tiputa community is identified, catalogued and monitored over time. We study how its behavior evolves amid sustained tourism activity.
AwarenessWe share our knowledge with school groups, divers and other visitors, the local population, the general public and institutions. We invite divers to take part in our citizen science program.
Support us Adopt a dolphin
Awareness

Join a talk

  • Next session: Sunday, October 4, 2026
  • Every week for 1 hour
  • From 4 to 15 people
  • Entry at 2,000 XPF / €17 · Free for Rangiroa residents

Prices and available spots are kept up to date on HelloAsso.

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Field journal

Latest from the pass

Thank you to Jérôme and Isabelle for their precious sharing! 🙏
September 29, 2026

Thank you to Jérôme and Isabelle for their precious sharing! 🙏

Thanks to the generosity of Jérôme 📸, who brought us photos, and Isabelle 🎥, who shared videos of the Tiputa dolphins dating from the late 1990s and e…

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Moana the dolphin: the collection is coming to an end, your support matters more than ever!
September 13, 2026

Moana the dolphin: the collection is coming to an end, your support matters more than ever!

A few weeks ago, we announced the launch of a donation collection on the Anāvai Foundation platform, to co-fund the creation of an awareness comic boo…

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⚠️ Call for vigilance in the Tiputa area…
September 8, 2026

⚠️ Call for vigilance in the Tiputa area…

A new little dolphin has joined the bottlenose dolphin community!🐬🌊

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All news

Follow us day to day

Daily sightings, births, field trips: our social channels carry what happens between two updates of this site.