Dolphins everywhere!

BIM14_T28_CalfOn Wednesday, Kel departed with Bimini Adventures’ first boat just before 1300. The sun was shining, but there was a solid chop to the sea. Still, the crew was optimistic that their patience was going to pay off. Several hours later, optimism was fading! As happens, time and time again, the dolphins show us who is boss – and we saw a group of spotteds near the interns and Bimini Adventures’ second boat! We confirmed 7 spotteds near us, including an adult, a younger sub-adult (possibly Speedy, #78), a juvenile – who will soon be entered into our catalog, and four other young dolphins. The young dolphins came very close to the Parallax cameraman and showed him some great social, tactile behaviors as the adult seemed to hover off to the side. Soon after it was a crater feeding extravaganza with bottlenose dolphins, all the while we could see the second boat with the interns…
 
After just an hour of searching Lauren, Amy, and Alexis found a group of around 15 spotted dolphins! We quickly went into the water and although most of the group didn’t stick around long, we still interacted with dolphins for over an hour! All of the interns agree that the dolphins were in a strange mood today, as they all were in a very lackadaisical state. Four of the dolphins stayed near the bow almost the entire time, clearly wanting to bow ride by slapping its fluke at us! We were able to snap a few pictures, but they seemed more interested in the bow of the boat. Suddenly we saw a group of around 10 bottlenose dolphins crater feeding and even saw a dolphin leap after a jumping fish! The water was too deep to collect data, so we decided to leave the dolphins and head back home. We were all very excited to have such an eventful day!
 
Peace out, 
Lauren, Alexis, Amy, & Kel