One of my favorite events of the year is our field course with Sacred Heart University (SHU). Taught by Dr. Deirdre Yeater and held at our Bimini, The Bahamas field site, this course brings SHU and non-SHU students to study wild Atlantic spotted and bottlenose dolphins. Mornings are filled with class lectures and discussions and afternoons are spent at sea, searching for and observing dolphins. It's exciting for me; most students have never seen a wild dolphin, certainly not under water.
The day was bright but very windy with rain squalls throughout the morning. Actually, it poured all night and we woke to a sort of tapering off of the rain. The underwater visibility did not look half bad when we took a reconnaissance trek to Bailey’s Key. (Hard to tell in this view since the rain is rather hard!) The morning had some very choppy water on the way to Bailey’s, though the afternoon showed a lessening of the wave height.
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).
We have a diehard group of eco-tour participants dedicated to our research and data collection at 6:30 every morning but today was their day to enjoy an encounter and swim with the dolphins (after, of course, data collection was complete!). The encounter had members of our group sharing time with Gracie and Alita, two adult females. After a meet and greet, everyone spent ~30 min swimming with the dolphin group. The smiles on their human faces on water exit were a testament to the fun had by all. Games of seagrass toss and chase were engaged in.
We met at the water taxi stand at 6 AM for the short ride to Bailey’s Key. I was in the water by 6:15 AM and observing dolphins very soon thereafter! The underwater visibility was less than the previous days but the dolphins were just as social.
Another really good morning of visibility and socializing dolphins! The three one-year-old calves were quite rambunctious today. During the early morning session, Stan was zipping around sometimes with Shawn and others with his older sister, Elli. Calli and Elli were also quite enamored of my fins and crowded me often while I watched the others in the group. Maury was in infant position first with Gracie and then with Mrs. B. Shawn was non-phased by Maury usurping his spot with Gracie and just pushed her away a bit to nurse.
A rainy night dawned to cloudy, overcast skies that suggested the water visibility would be … murky, to be nice! But, the underwater visibility turned out to be not too bad! The adult males were outside the main pool area. So, our early AM (6:30 AM!) data collection session was focused on the adult females and juveniles and calves. It was a delight to watch Dory, Stan and Shawn, the one-year olds, zip around each other in a sort of tag while their moms stayed close by.
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It is true – my bags seem smaller than in years past! Maybe I’m following technology’s pattern in having my gear get smaller and smaller with more years accumulated! As with our January 2017 field course, I’ve been able to streamline the MVA2 packing such that it fits into a carry-on! I still need a checked bag for my bathing suits, shorty wetsuit, and fins (etc.) but it’s nice to “travel light!” And yes, 1 checked bag and two carry-ons is “traveling light” for me when going into the field!