Everyone got home safely on Saturday! And, I think everyone took Sunday to rest up … and maybe do some laundry and get caught up on mail and … maybe play with a puppy or other furry family member (I know I did!). Our program was a success with students learning and....
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Our last day began well with a great data collection session on the dolphins. They were quieter today than previous days. They perked up as did we after breakfast when we had our encounter and swim. We met Gracie and Alita during the encounters and then got to swim with a dozen dolphins with Poli and her calf making tight passes by us and Sandy, Trixie, and Buzz trying to get us to play with seaweed. After our swim, we...
Thursday was jam-packed with a tide-pool observation and flora by the sea assessment before Kathleen’s data collection! And the underwater visibility was SPECTACULAR! Such good long focal follows of the dolphins and even we could begin to ID some of the dolphins from the surface and close swim-by's. The late morning was...
We had a Wednesday full of energetic activities! Our day began with a “bright bang” – so to speak! We had a lightning show and thunderstorm/squall pass by between 4 and 5:30 AM. The squall passed in time for us to head over to Bailey’s Key to conduct our surface observations and space use data collection associated with Kathleen’s underwater video data observations. The dolphins seemed...
Data collection was the name of the game this morning with space use, surface observations, and Kathleen’s underwater video data. There was moderate activity from the dolphins, but we know that Sandy, Rocky, Tank, Poli and her calf spent lots of time around Kathleen. We also were able to collect some space use data...
Monday's data collection was early, but we recorded lots of observations and a good set of space use data. Our morning went well, and we are all getting comfier with the observations and use of the grid, as well as documenting activity levels of the dolphins. After breakfast, we met near the lobby for the shuttle ride to Maya Key …
Our first morning of dolphin observations and data collection – woohoo! We saw several dolphins and practice recognizing each individual. After meeting the dolphins in person and having a nourishing breakfast, we spent time in the classroom learning about the permanent scars and marks on each dolphin. Click to read more about our day!
Our uneventful flights brought us here in two groups from Houston and Miami. The welcome at Roatan’s airport was wonderful … shortish lines for immigration. Our afternoon at AKR included ...
The StMU group (moniker to follow) departed San Antonio this afternoon for Houston. They leave tomorrow morning for Roatan. We look forward to a great week …
It’s been a busy week preparing to meet the students from St. Mary’s University (StMU, in San Antonio, TX) for a week at Anthony’s Key Resort (AKR) to study the dolphins at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS). Our student group is ...