After not being out on the boat for over a week, Saturday’s trip was a success. Found dolphins just before six o’clock and they stayed with us for an hour. From the surface we observed a large group of adults engaged in what appeared to be mating. Once in the water, the first two encounters were with 3 subadults who were moderately interactive with the passengers. During the second encounter, a larger group of males joined us, two of which had a bit of fun with us. Such a large group of adult males is not often seen on our trips. Some dolphins were even rubbing up against the passengers, biting fins and mimicking head motions and noises made by passengers for about 15 minutes. Since we began working in Bimini last summer, we have not witnessed an encounter with quite these kinds of interactions, although we had heard stories. In our experience, this degree of touching and mimicking is not common among these dolphins. We now have lots of video footage to go over, as MVA1 and Top Dawg cameras were both in the water.
Until next time,
Kathy, Kelly and Darcie