But the bottlenose entertain briefly
Today was the final snorkel stop of the week and it was at Rainbow Reef, one of the few marine sanctuaries around Bimini. It is a reef with an extremely diverse population of fish (one research group catalogued 103 fish species on this relatively small section of reef). The reef itself is still showing signs of its sand-blasting from Hurricane Francis last fall.
The only spotted dolphins we saw today were with another dolphin boat, so our boat gave them plenty of space. We did, however, see a group of over 15 bottlenose dolphins just outside the harbor. We recognized a couple of distinct dorsal fins and knew that at least some of these individuals had been hanging outside the harbor on Monday morning. There was also a smaller subgroup just to the west. They let us watch them for about 15 minutes and it was a nice end to a quiet day.
Last trip of the week is tomorrow! Hope it goes well!
Until then,
Kel and Darcie