Hi all!
We are thrilled to welcome the 2015 crop of students from University of New Brunswick Saint John (UNBSJ) and their Professor, Stephen Turnbull, to Bimini! Over the next week, we hope you enjoy their field reports. Here’s the first installment:
Those of us, who had finished up our course at the SharkLab, cleaned our rooms, packed up & took a group photo (including canine Kahli!). We said goodbye to our classmates who were not joining the dolphin course, and headed to the water taxi. We waited at the water taxi while our Professor picked up the four new students. Those of us just arriving were a little nervous on the small plane (cough, cough, Kyle). Our first impressions were that Bimini was windy and warm and from the air, the blue of the water was so pretty. We met up with our shark course counterparts and headed to North Bimini. It was a short ride between the islands, but it was a splashy one. Our luggage was all in one corner – was the boat going to make it?!! It did and we arrived safely at the Sea Crest, where we met up with Kel & Nicole.
We settled in and had lunch – many of us had Bimini Bread for the first time. It was delicious! We were all so hungry, it was very exciting. Then, we had some lectures, including an introduction to DCP and the dolphins we’ll (hopefully!) see this week.
Later in the day, since the wind kept us from searching for dolphins at sea, some of us played in the waves at the beach and others headed to the store or straw market. We returned inside and got our first practice with photo-ID. Some it was fun (Swoosh!) even though some were challenging. Still, it was exciting and it is nice to know what to look for now. Dinner was awesome (thank you, Nicole!) and we watched the film DOLPHINS. One of us (not to be named) asked if Dr. Dudzinski was still alive!! We were thrilled to hear she is very much alive and will be Skyping with us soon. Some famous peeps (not the marshmallow kind) lent their voices – James Bond discussing dolphins. We enjoyed our fresh water showers and called it a night.
Until tomorrow,
Bimini Babes (and Hunks), UNBSJ 2015