Our phone call today was a no-go, but we did spend the afternoon working on Tape 7 before our 15:00 boat trip. Once in the “dolphin grounds” we passed right by a manta ray! It is a rare sight to see a manta in that area (we do regularly see them -or is it just one?- patrolling just off the beach), so we made sure the passengers knew what a treat it was! Next, we saw a single bottlenose dolphin. We’ve likely gotten a decent dorsal fin ID photo, so if it isn’t an animal we have already photographed, this will be lucky 13. A short time later, we saw another single bottlenose. We did not get a good look at this one, so we can’t be sure if it was the same or a different animal. It appeared smaller, so likely it was another. Then, just when everyone had given up hope & decided to focus on the impending sunset, the spotteds arrived! We saw Tina (#14), Nemo (#76), Swoosh (#36) & likely un-named #78. Swoosh’s injury still isn’t very pretty, but it looks like it is healing. We are beginning to wonder if it may actually be from another dolphin….We’ll have to wait until we review the video to confirm #78’s ID, but whoever it was, it also had some peculiar new markings. There was little light, so hopefully the video & still photos came out okay. Once home, it was catch up on office work, including this batch of field reports. We hope you all have been enjoying them! Thanks for reading! Until next time, Kel & Darcie
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