Thursday was the Sea Crest group's last day on the boat and it began with a 1430 departure. Nicole joined them on their dolphin search which was preceded by a snorkeling stop at the "Three Sisters". After enjoying the coral and beautiful fish around the big sister rock for a bit, as well as an up-close encounter with a tiny (but feisty) remora, we headed out on our regular route. About 20 minutes later we passed another local dolphin boat that had found a group of spotted dolphins.
After spending the morning working on photo ID, Nicole set off with the tourist group at 1500 to search for dolphins. This time, Captain Audley was joining the group! Everyone was excited to have him back on Bimini. And for his first trip back, he must have had a premonition about where to look for dolphins because he found them less than an hour after setting out! At first we saw a group of four sub-adult and adult Atlantic spotted dolphins, possibly including Buster (#04).
Tuesday morning found us doing office work as usual. Around 12:30, however, they headed over to the Sea Crest Hotel where this week's dolphin group is staying. Everyone was interested in learning more about the dolphins around Bimini so we joined them for a lunchtime chat. The group asked many good questions about Atlantic spotted dolphins in general, the individual dolphins of Bimini, the research DCP conducts here and much more!
After the noon-time chat, everyone set off to prepare for the boat which would be departing a bit early at 1430.
Fourth of July Monday started out with data processing and other office work. Later in the morning, Nicole took a brief break from her work to visit some adorable 3 week old kittens with Kaila. They were precious!
By 1500, everyone was ready to set off on our quest for dolphins. Unfortunately, due to some not-safety-related boat delays, we did not leave until closer to 1600.
Saturday was a (much-deserved) rest day for the DCP researchers. Then on Sunday the next Sea Crest dolphin tour group arrived on Bimini. This group is composed of 14 guests from different parts of the US.
After a morning of catch-up on office stuff, we prepared to head out on the boat with the guests at 1500. As we pulled out of the dock there were ominous storm clouds to the northwest that let out a deep rumble of thunder every once in a while.
After breakfast on Thursday we headed to Radio Beach for a beach cleanup. Everyone grabbed a buddy and collected garbage and debris--as a group we collected 9 bags of trash! It is nice that the students are able to give back to Bimini and the environment that gave them so many wonderful experiences over the past 12 days. Then everyone enjoyed the beach one last time with a luxurious cool-off swim!
Once they had dried off, the students headed back to the common room to discuss some final details about the course.
On Wednesday, some of us woke early for a morning walk. The big winner in this exercise was Ben, who found $120 on the beach! With no one around to claim it, he savored his good luck. Our class session was a discussion about ecotourism, bringing our conversation full circle from the first day. Kel shared (one of her many) soap boxes and we experienced our first Bimini power outage. Thankfully, it was short.
On Tuesday, we began with our yummy breakfast, the blog and some photo-ID.
On Monday morning, it was a large thunderclap that woke us! Soon our bellies were full, our blog was written and we were discussing mixed species interactions. We all agreed that people cannot put our personal/human expectations and social constructs onto dolphins, particularly when it comes to socio-sexual interactions and mating techniques. (For more on this, check out Dr.
Sunday began bright and early. Breakfast was only 30 minutes earlier than usual, but it felt like a lifetime earlier. We headed to South Bimini – and from the beginning our journey, we were being swarmed by no-see-ums, referred to by us as “The Devil’s Creatures.” No-see-ums are actually sandflies and while there are some on North Bimini, South Bimini is notorious for them. We braved these vicious creatures for good reason: a tour of the South Bimini Biological Field Station, aka The SharkLab.