Though the weather has thrown another Hurricane in our path, we had a lovely day with some sunshine and lots of data collection – two sessions, one in the early morning (06:15 AM) and one in the late morning (10:00 AM). (Can you tell my brain is focused on data collection, not the weather!?) We were supposed to have more than a few rain showers but it seems that storm “Nate” will be sending some wind and rain by us tonight suggesting that Friday will be weather-full.
We had really good underwater visibility for both morning sessions and for the dolphin swim session sandwiched between them. Several of our DCP eco-tourists (Dee, Heather, Brittany, Erin, Riley and Regina) elected to do a second dolphin swim. Polly and Callie were waiting for me to enter on the second data session! Stan and Shawn played with Heather and Dee and Calli circle swam around everyone. Erin played with a seashell with Shawn – he kept bringing it back to her! There was lots of mother/calf swimming around the swimmers. Calli was very interested in Regina’s fins, which might contain a few rake marks! Gracie regularly checked on Shawn but she did not want to play. The dolphins were very playful and a grand time was had by all involved!
We also got a bit of time to meet with the training team to share some video with them and talk about our developing research program to study creativity in these dolphins. And, our afternoon was spent transcribing the half-dozen slates that were full of data to support the video collected. A good day indeed!
Tomorrow is our last full day here … and let’s hope we have good weather!
Cheers
Kathleen