On Saturday, Daisy and the visiting students headed out in search of dolphins, but unfortunately came up empty. That didn’t diminish anyone’s spirits as we headed out again on Sunday. About an hour into the trip we saw a group of 13 dolphins; I recognized quite a few, but suspect they were the “transplants” from the northern Bahamas. We had nice surface and underwater observations of this group before they took off abruptly.
Once we were back onboard the boat, we resumed our search and soon we were with 5 of the previous group of 13. It seemed the juveniles had split off from the others and we once again were able to observe them under water. It’s so much fun to see the students experience swimming with wild dolphins for the first time!
We left this group after their interest in us seemed to dwindle. As we searched for different dolphins, we got a quick visit from a lone bottlenose. Everyone got a good look before we resumed course. Just before 1800, we saw another small group of spotted dolphins. This time, only one mother/calf pair stuck around, but it was Tina (#14) and her calf, so I was thrilled! We got a nice swim with them (new photos for DCP’s ID catalog, woo-who!) and then a final swim for the day with a Tina & calf and two other youngsters….and somewhere in there was Prince William (#64). I wonder if we’ll get any other IDs when we look over the photos and video. Hmmmm…
Until next time,
Kel
PS: Does searching for and observing wild dolphins sound fun to you? We’ve got a few spaces remaining on our (last minute!) Bimini Research Experience (aka eco-tour): 2 – 7 July 2017. $1875 for 5 nights’ accommodation (dbl occ), 5 dolphin trips, all meals, taxes, rental snorkel gear and DCP talks. Email us to sign up now! Info{at}dcpmail{dot}org