On Sunday we departed on another Bimini Undersea dolphin trip with a full boat of passengers all eager to get a glimpse of our underwater friends! We were glad to see the
water was especially blue and clear; the perfect backdrop to find and collect dolphin data. We sighted our first dolphin of the day, a lone spotted, at around 1700 but unfortunately it didn’t want to stick around for long. When we went to hop in and get a look under water it quickly swam off, but we happily took the chance to cool off in the water and take a brief swim break. As we moved in search of more we quickly found a group of six spotted dolphins. We managed to get a quick glimpse of them under water, but they lost interest fast and headed just out of view. As we followed them afterward we observed some impressive leaps by a young calf, some mating behaviors, and tail slaps! While following this group we sighted another group just a little ways off in the distance, which appeared to be an even larger group of dolphins. We assumed they would be another group of spotteds, but they actually turned out to be a group of eight bottlenose dolphins! With a looming storm cloud growing in the distance we knew this would be our last opportunity for an underwater encounter, so we quickly jumped in and hoped for the best! When we dove under the water we were expecting them to swim off as the bottlenose usually do, but today they completely surprised the interns and seemed particularly curious about their human visitors. Brittany was especially excited to get the chance to observe the bottlenose dolphins up close for the first time! They were busy crater feeding for most of the time, and most of the guests were surprised by how loud their echolocation was. Some of the dolphins were extremely interactive with the guests; twirling around them and playing it seemed! Unfortunately, our time with the bottlenose had to end sooner than we would have liked because of the gloomy storm that was moving our way. But as we raced back to Bimini to beat the storm chasing us down, everyone was excitedly reliving their time under the sea with the bottlenose. It was definitely a bottlenose kind of day!
Until next time,
Brittany & Alexis