Again, the underwater visibility sucked … more, much more than yesterday. In fact, it was less than 2 m and very silty. So Kathleen’s observations with the MVA2 were limited to about 7 or 8 minutes. It’s quite difficult to conduct behavioral observation when you can’t really see all of each dolphin’s body in the viewfinder.
We also started our personal interviews with John today about this field course. And, we had a morning snorkel session from the boat at West End beach and point and also finished at Blue Channel. The underwater visibility was much better just outside the inner reef! We saw a small shoal of squid, some parrotfish, blue tang and a disco fish. We had to “play” matrix or do our “mission impossible” moves to avoid the jellyfish. We also saw a queen angelfish and butterfly fish along with a giant conch shell.
After snorkeling, we started our morning observations of adult male dolphin respiration rates. We spent time watching Ritchie and Bill and Hector and Han in the back pools. It was easier to focus on just two different dorsal fins at one time to practice recognizing them from the surface rather than all 23 dorsal fins in the main pool. We ironed out our data collection techniques and divided the pools into quadrants and focused on the surfacing dolphins. We were distracted only a few times by dolphins in other pools breathing loudly … and Mac tried in vain to get Katie’s attention by breaching next to her and splashing her back! Katie kept her focus, however!
The afternoon brought us more data collection under a VERY hot and vivid sun! But, we got even better at data collection. This session was followed by a presentation by Teri about operant conditioning and training and the RIMS dolphins. It was very informative and engaging. Teri is clearly very passionate about her work and her love of the animals is very evident. After her talk, we followed Teri back to Bailey’s Key to meet the latest additions to the group. Alita, Gracie, and Carmella‘s calves all have names: they are Dory and Shawn and Stan (refer to title!). They are readily recognizable with distinct personalities! It was fun to watch them play and interact with each other. The moms certainly kept a close eye on us when their calves were near us.
The evening concluded with dinner on the key with crab races, limbo and Garafuna dancers. Yum!
Until tomorrow,
Cheers
Kathleen, Shane & the funky bunch