The wild salmon flies through the air, soaring over the head of the bottlenose dolphin breaching the surface of the chilly waters.

But this apparent display of aquatic acrobatics is not as playful as it seems.

What these breathtaking pictures actually show is a pod of dolphins engaging in a deadly dance of agility, speed and timing as they hunt for food.

Deadly dance: The dolphin hurls the salmon into the air with a painful strike of its long nose

The salmon that seems to be leaping for its life in the Moray Firth is more likely to have been hurled into the air by a swift and painful strike by the long nose or tail of a dolphin.

The mammals lay in wait for the salmon before powering through the water beneath them and hurling them into the air.

Salmon stand little chance of survival as the dolphins attempt to break their neck and swallow them whole before repeating the process on another victim.

The images were captured by amateur photographer James Moore.

Gotcha: A bottlenose dolphin rises from the water to snare the salmon in the Moray Firth

He shot the images from the shore at Chanonry Point, a spit of land that stretches more than a mile into the Moray Firth near Fort George, Invernessshire.

Mr Moore, 37, said: ‘It’s a wonderful time of year for the salmon coming into the Firth.’

He added: ‘About eight dolphins came within 20ft of the shore. It was breathtaking.

‘These are said to be the biggest bottlenose dolphins in the world because the water’s so cold and they need a lot of blubber.

‘Some of the salmon were over 10lb in weight. The dolphins use sonar to detect the fish, then swim underneath them and whack them high up into the air.

‘The dolphins are beautiful – but the spectacle is clever and deadly.’