TGIF? Last Day for Data Collection!

The rainy season seems to have arrived to Roatan! Another rain-filled evening dawned to overcast skies and elevated wind speeds! The current was also quite strong! We made the trek over to Bailey’s Key with the hope of collecting data with the MVA2. The dolphins were social and seemingly game! I was game, my crew was certainly willing to make surface observations. Mother Nature (or is it Father Neptune?!) had other ideas! The underwater visibility, even viewed from above water, was not good! The current was again strong and a squall was on the horizon.

So, we decided to wait an hour or two … maybe the visibility would improve?

It did not. But, our group had a dolphin encounter and met Polly and Tilly at the beach. And, with Bill and Ron’s help, I prepared the SM2M for deployment. Since I am returning to Roatan with a college group for a field course in animal behavior and physiology on 31 December, we received permission from Eldon and AKR to leave the SM2M (our passive acoustic recorder) out recording for the next two months! I secured it with 24 lbs of weight as well as tying it to a piling. The dolphins were VERY interested in the SM2M and me … and maybe thought they were being helpful when pulling at my regulator hose and fins!

Today was a good day, even though no video were collected. We wrap things up tomorrow for the return trip. I’ll provide a summary of the week tomorrow.

Cheers

Kathleen & the DCP 2016 Roatan Eco-tour group!