Picture this: You’re relaxing on your boat, watching the sun set, when you see a shimmering silver crescent leap out of the turquoise waters of the Gulf. It’s a playful bottlenose dolphin, and the sight of it makes you giggle like a little kid. You’re smiling just imagining it, right?
Well, lucky for us, you’re more likely to spot one in our region than in many other Florida cities. A new analysis from BoatBooker, a boat-tour booking website that allows users to find, compare and book boating trips, shows that Holmes Beach is the sixth-best place to spot dolphins in the U.S.—and it’s No. 1 on the Gulf Coast.
BoatBooker analyzed documented 243,809 bottlenose dolphin sightings from OBIS-SEAMAP, a scientific database maintained by Duke University’s Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The full list comprises 365 coastal locations, with Buxton, NC, taking the top spot. (Anna Maria Island and Siesta Key Beach ranked No. 14 and No. 16, respectively.)…