Today, we share the last day observations from each student individually.
Victor: The morning was data but also a chance to say goodbye to the dolphins. I’m still not sure who is who but I can recognize 1 or 2 … especially Poli. The other highlight for me today was snorkeling in the afternoon at Bailey’s Key near the dolphin area. This made getting my covid test in Coxen Hole and away from the dolphins ok.
Alessandro: Today was a relaxing day. After the last data collection, we had one of the best snorkeling sessions around. We took our time and swam from the shore dive and saw the coral reef trees for the restoration project. It was a new experience. Lunch was a very delicious falafel. I tried to watch the football but I decided it was better to be in the Caribbean and enjoy the day. I said bye to the dolphins but not a forever bye.
Marica: This afternoon I saw an eagle ray while snorkeling, and I was able to record it feeding, which was neat.
Laura: We woke up and we unfortunately did our last data collection for this week. The dolphins were more active today from the surface. We saw a few breaches. We got to say goodbye to the dolphins and some of them came close to the platforms, which was nice. After breakfast, we went snorkeling and we saw the coral trees. There were a lot of big fishes near the trees. While swimming back, we swam over the eel grass and all got a few bites from the jellyfish larva. We saw the dolphins again in the afternoon but from outside their enclosure when we were snorkeling.
Riccardo: Today I touched dolphins for the last time. I enjoyed very much this afternoon’s snorkeling session because the water was clear and warm and we had no rush to finish … we had all the time we wanted to enjoy the afternoon snorkeling.
Annalisa: It was a quiet day mostly “off” but the best moment was when I was able to take some video on my own of the dolphins. And, Bailey seemed very interested in my GoPro. Having the dolphins all around was wonderful!
Sonja: Had a nice morning, although as bit sad because we had to say goodbye to the dolphins. The rest of the day was relaxing and enjoying a bit of free time and snorkeling. And we finished the night with a quiz of 27 dolphin ID images, which was quite fun! (And Davide and I tied with recognizing 18 of the 27 images!).
Davide: The trip to the coral trees (snorkeling from shore) was a nice moment together and seeing the trees. It was nice but also sad to say goodbye to the dolphins. I will miss the little ones – Sandy, Stan & Ronnie … Ronnie is adult but I’ll still miss him, too.
Shannon: We had a nice last morning with the dolphins and they were very friendly and came to say goodbye at the platform. I got sunburned when I went paddle-boarding. I avoided it all week but got sun this week and have a really cool sandal tan! We saw the dolphins one last time in the afternoon and also snorkeled and saw an eagle ray. And, I am covid negative, so I can go home!
It was a great week and we all learned lots!
Cheers
The UofB stvslmv group