Two interns…two separate dolphin trips!

 

BIM14_T40_youngSfsThursday the interns split up for 2 dolphin trips. Lauren joined Bimini Adventures and quickly ran into a group of bottlenose dolphins. They were crater feeding, which is quite common, but this time we even saw some mating attempts; a rare sight among bottlenose-only groups. After a short stop to observe this group we moved on to find different dolphins. Hours passed with nothing in sight and we were all starting to lose hope. Then three spotted dolphins greeted us and we followed them for almost an hour hoping they would lead us to a larger group, but unfortunately that was not the case. We turned around and as we were heading back toward the island we finally found a group of 8 spotted dolphins! The group was mostly younger animals, including Inka (#93) who has proven to be very playful! We also saw Prince William (#64) and unnamed #102! The day ended on a positive note with two separate groups of spotted dolphins coming to ride the bow as we headed back home.
 
Meanwhile, Alexis jumped on Bimini Undersea’s boat to join their dolphin trip! After a little over an hour we stumbled upon a group of 4 bottlenose dolphins swimming at the surface. We decided to hop in for a swim, and found the bottlenose focused on feeding. We eventually got back on the boat, re-positioned ourselves and tried one more time for a swim with them to get another glimpse of them feeding. We started heading back for shore after our 2 swims and on the way, took a stop at 3 Sisters rocks to go for a quick snorkel swim. It was nice for Alexis to revisit a familiar snorkeling spot she hadn’t seen in almost 3 full years.
 
Lauren and Alexis are back with Bimini Adventures tomorrow for another trip so wish us luck!
 
So Long,
Lauren, Alexis, & Kel