We began the day with a very dynamic data collection session. French and Champ were in the main lagoon with the mother/calf pairs and Ronnie, Poli, Lenca, and Stan were in the shallow and deep areas. The CSU students did their last morning data collection session under a cloudless sky with calm seas … The dolphins were mostly quiet at the surface, at least on space use scans. Still, we saw some chasing and some leaps by the younger calves. Kathleen saw Woody nursing and Mr. French spent time buzzing her fins. It was a good 31 min underwater observation session.
After data collection, the students detoured to their rooms to finish packing and place their bags outside their rooms. Breakfast was hearty – to sustain everyone on their day of travel back to Colorado. The cover photo shows the light rays shining through the trees on the shuttle bus to transport the group to the airport.
The rest of our day was slow. Don, DCP board member, arrived mid-afternoon to represent this week’s ecotour group – the other participants had to postpone their trip.
We (Kathleen and Manon) also chatted with Meredith at Bailey’s Key about some additional data collection we are planning to do, and we got to observe the dolphins a bit from the surface between encounter programs. Ronnie and Poli are still in the shallows hanging out together!
Tomorrow morning will still be early – we will meet with Don at 6:30 to head over the Bailey’s key for observations. He’ll have the dive orientation meeting at 7:30 so we need to blend the data collection and dive schedules.
Until tomorrow, sleep well!
Cheers
Kathleen, Manon & Don