Three half-hour underwater sessions of data collection filled our morning! Everyone was VERY vocal – lots of whistling, click trains, buzzing, brays and more. Even Carmella was into the action and whistling with bubble streams. The early morning session had all but two dolphins in the main area, including Ronnie and French. And, Ronnie was much less interested in me than last year! Thank goodness.
Our second session was about two hours later and Calli and Polly alternated swimming circles around me, jawing at the camera, poking at my fins and showing way too much curiosity in me for my liking. I mostly ignored them … though my attention was caught when they seemed to coordinate their efforts – as seen in this photo! Both are young female dolphins and very playful!
The third session had to be shortened by about 8 minutes (from 30 to 22 min) because Calli and Polly decided to swim in tandem with me! Several of our team also spent more time with the training staff to familiarize themselves with the dolphins ID scars and marks. Much laughter was heard around the lagoon and everyone was mildly damp when done with the session!
The afternoon was spent reviewing several of the video clips from the morning sessions and practicing our hand at photo-ID from the video clips.
We start tomorrow at 6:30 AM again! Until then,
Cheers
Kathleen & the DCP RIMS 2015 team