Our first week with Hunter College was so busy that there was no extra time to post field reports! I hope you’ll forgive this belated summary of the week:
On Sunday 12 August, week one of two began with ten Hunter College students, their instructors and two bonus guests photographing throughout the week for an upcoming National Geographic story on dolphin cognition. The dolphin success for the week ran the gamut, with bottlenose and spotted sightings, as well as mixed species groups. We completed afternoon trips each day Sun – Thurs, with additional morning trips Mon – Thurs and mid-day trips on Friday and Saturday. On Monday, I gave a lecture during lunch on dolphin photo-identification. The students were great, asking very engaging questions. On Tuesday, I was able to deploy the SM2M, beginning its week at sea, this time recording dolphin echolocation when the dolphins are within close range of this passive acoustic monitor. Over the course of the week’s 11 dolphin trips (in just seven days!), we were able to see Romeo (#10), Tina (#14), Split Jaw (#22), Swoosh (#36), Niecey (#48, and calf?), Prince William (#64), Tim (#69, pictured here on a very calm day), Addie (#84), Tilly (#87), Inka (#93), Milo (#96), Leslie (#80) and Lil’Jess (#35) and their calves, un-named #s 40, 95 and 97 and possibly Juliette (#12), Freckles (#15) and Cerra (#38).
Although the week ended with a dolphin-less trip on Saturday, it was a great week with fellow researchers, motivated students and talented photographers. The only downfall was that there was no time to rest before the next round of students arrived!
Stay tuned for that update,
Kel