As expected, data collection was conducted as our first activity. We did collect space use data for a baseline and before before Manon collected the underwater data, as well as when she was in the water and after. Gracie and Trixie played with a piece coral for several minutes before Tank took a selfie with Manon (see the feature photo)! Lightning-He spent the last 5-10 minutes of the session with Manon and his entire maternal family! See them all below!
After breakfast, we all waited patiently in front of the gift shop to ride the boat back to Bailey’s for our dolphin encounter and swim. We met Yessan (trainer) and Gizmo (dolphin) for our encounter and then had a blast with the swim. You can see us all in line below for the swim and then Gizmo in a neat and high leap!
We had free time until lunch after our swim with the dolphins and after lunch, our dolphin-themed day continued with a talk from Teri about operant conditioning and training. We learned much! And asked lots of questions. After Teri, John spoke to us about responsible and conservation-oriented filmmaking. We watched a short film about butterflies that John filmed, edited, and produced. (Film is called Lepidoptera.) We then reviewed the morning video to practice dolphin IDs. We had some spare time to grab our snorkel gear and don our bathing suits before returning to the classroom to listen to Mickey Charteris about night diving/snorkeling and the animals to be seen. It was fascinating learning about the nocturnal habits of the underwater sea creatures. And our snorkel was fun … entering the water at about 6:05 PM and spending 50+ minutes exploring and watching the animals visible in the light thrown by our flashlights.
Riley H. – Swimming with the dolphins today was the coolest thing I’ve done in my life. Being able to see them act naturally without a trainer asking them for behaviors was amazing.
Rebecca – It was interesting to listen to a trainer’s perspective on how they train and to learn their strategies for the dolphins’ training. And I enjoyed getting kissed by a dolphin.
Katerina – I really enjoyed the night snorkel. I was able to see a lot of invertebrates that I would not see during the day.
Aubrie – The entire swim and encounter experience with the dolphins today gave me so much respect for how incredible a species they are. They were significantly larger and heavier than I imagined.
Katie – I thoroughly enjoyed learning about all the different underwater invertebrates and then connecting that lecture to our night snorkel.
Riley B. – Swimming with a dolphin has been on my bucket list since I was a kid. And I checked it off today which was the best thing ever.
Braydon – I really enjoyed Mickey’s talk on Caribbean reef life. It was great to see how passionate he was about the topic. I also got my fins bit by dolphins during the swim.
Rafaela – Swimming with the dolphins made me appreciate what majestic and beautiful creatures they are and the night swim showed me a whole new world that comes alive at night.
Quincy – I was very excited for the night snorkel, especially since it was my first one. And I saw all of the creatures that I wanted to see tonight.
John – Two more drone missions accomplished and a swim with the dolphins.
Manon – Between the free-swimming moray eel and the tiniest scorpion fish ever, this was one of the best night snorkels so far.
Shane – I felt honored than John let me fly the drone into position today. (and I didn’t crash!!)
And we shared with Kathleen, Manon, Shane, and John that Quincy was crowned the Limbo Queen at last night’s fiesta dinner!!
Cheers
CSU’s S.O.T. Jones