The winds are still strong, but my ant bite infection is better & the forecast is much more promising for the weekend. So, I’ve been spending my free time walking on the beach and my work time going through digital photographs that still need to be ID’d. My other big project is to lay out a “stranding response plan,” which will be available should a dolphin stranding event occur in the future. As some of you may recall, last summer a bottlenose dolphin was observed in a mangrove canal on South Bimini. The animal was in the canal for over 24 hours, a red flag that the animal was stressed and/or disoriented. We were able to mobilize fairly quickly with Bimini Undersea staff and Shark Lab researchers. By the time we decided to intervene, prepared & returned to the animal, it was gone! Because there is only one way out of the canal, we had to (happily) assume that the animal found its way back to sea. But, the whole encounter made us realize that we had not thoroughly considered how we would handle a “true” stranding event. So, that’s what I’m trying to accomplish – a set of guidelines that will allow us to be most efficient should another event occur. It will also be for Bimini Undersea staff should something happen while DCP researchers are not on-island. That’s keeping me busy while I wait for the winds to die down! Until next time, Kel
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