Observations are reported of the interaction with a free surface of vortex rings and vortex pairs moving normal to the surface when different amounts of surface active agents are present on the surface. At a vortex ring Reynolds number &Ggr;/&ngr;≈3800, the interaction with a contaminated free surface results in the generation of secondary and tertiary vortex rings that limited the outward motion of the vortex ring core. When the experiment was repeated with a cleaner surface the formation of the secondary vortex ring was delayed so that the outward motion and stretching of the vortex ring core was much more than for the contaminated surface. At a Reynolds number &Ggr;/&ngr;≈18 000, the vortex pair was observed to rebound from the free surface contrary to what one would expect for an inviscid flat boundary. When the surface was cleaned by draining away a portion of the contaminated surface water the amount of rebound was reduced. These changes in interaction are believed to be caused by the reduction in concentration of the surface active agent which, in turn, results in a reduced generation of secondary vorticity ahead of the vortex ring or pair before and during the interaction with the surface.