My bags are packed and I’m ready to go. Soon I’ll be leaving on a jet plane … Sound familiar? It’s a song … (though for the life of me I cannot at this moment remember the title or artist) but it also nicely describes my routine for preparing for three weeks in the field! I depart tomorrow early (!) for two back-to-back field courses followed by a week of research with two colleagues (Heather and Dee). John will join us on the third week to document our research and studies.
On Wednesday, I joined – in a somewhat unofficial capacity – a dolphin trip with Neal Watson’s Bimini SCUBA Center. As this is the off-season for dolphin trips, opportunities limited to search for DCP ID#104 (WDP’s “Lamda”), the Atlantic spotted dolphin who stranded in August, was rehab’d and then released in late October. I filled the guests in on #104 and my hope of the day…
Soon, there were dolphins! No #104, but it was a large group of bottlenose dolphins.
October is normally a very quiet month for DCP on Bimini. Research summary reports are drafted. Permit applications are prepped. Data are attempted to stay organized…This October brought a spike in activity. As you likely saw on social media and in our latest issue of The Dolphin Gazette, DCP ID#104 (also WDP’s ID “Lamda”), was found stranded in late August, far from Bimini. The report came into BMMRO and they called upon the rescue team from Atlantis. They assessed his condition and got him back in the water and off he went. But not for long.
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Yay for October dolphin trips! I don't get a chance to in search of dolphins very often post-September, but on Friday and Saturday, I was able to join a visiting film crew. Though I knew I would be unlikely to collect any video, acoustic or photographic data, I was still eager to search for the dolphins and share info with the visitors. On Friday, the seas made us work for every step on the boat and we only saw a few passing bottlenose dolphins.
The off-season means a lot of things: data, writing, resting. But, it also means recruiting for our Bimini field courses! We’re excited to have three courses lined up for Spring/Summer 2019. University of New Brunswick Saint John is already full. Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) and Sacred Heart University (SHU) are now accepting applications. Contact us at info dcpmail org for more info, or go ahead and contact the Professors/Schools directly!
EKU: Field dates 12 – 24 May 2019. In-person class sessions during Spring 2019 semester followed by 12 nights in Bimini, The Bahamas.
The weather was still overcast with periodic drizzly rain but no lightning meant we could collect data. I was able to get about 28 min of video this morning, even though the underwater visibility was a bit less than earlier in the week. The dolphins were quite playful with each other. Champ and Dory and then Champ and Tilly each decided to play with my fins and circle swim me a few times during my observations. Carmella and Bailey both whistled with bubble streams.
Our day (Thursday) began with a bang thanks to Mother Nature. Lightning kept us off the dock in the morning and me out of the water. So, no data collection occurred today. We did, however, assist Jennifer with a Coral Tree Cleaning (aka Coral Christmas Trees – in October!). RIMS and AKR have a forest of PVC trees adorned with coral clippings. The coral is grown in situ and when it has grown enough, is transplanted to the reef. In this way, there is an effort to help the reef.
It was a wet day but a bright day in our activities! Two data collection sessions brought another 45+ minutes of video to our data collection for the week. The dolphins were vocal and social. For a school research project, Nat is looking at infant position among the dolphins and we saw a good bit of that posture and swim position today. The morning session also had lots of floating seaweed and flotsam. Great play toys! The dolphins tried to entice everyone near the pool to play with some amount of seaweed.