On Friday the Bimini Adventures student group, Kali & Ellyne were happy to be out on the boat for the fifth day in a row. The sea was aquamarine and it was a clear day with few scattered clouds. The waves were moderately calm and we were searching hard for three and half hours to find dolphins. Though this stretch was dolphin-less, we saw a large-sized turtle near our bow and the turtle dove down! It wasn’t until we were heading back to shore that we saw calves leaping out of the water in front of the bow.
Right from the start on Thursday Kali & Ellyne could tell the day’s trip would be better than our last as the sea was much calmer. The field course students were eager to get their fins wet and head off to Bimini Road for snorkeling. Bimini Road was a new place to explore for the students and even this year’s DCP interns. We saw all sorts of life below the surface including angel fish, many different types of wrasses, sergeant majors, sponges, a few corals, and even a nurse shark.
On Wednesday, Kali and Ellyne experienced their first dolphin-less boat trip while Kel stayed on shore. It was also the windiest day yet on the boat for both of them! The waters around the harbor didn’t seem too choppy and looked beautiful, as they were bright teal. Once we reached open waters we soon realized it was going to be a bumpy ride. At the beginning of the trip, the students sitting on the bow were splashed frequently as they tried to search for dolphins.
On Monday we welcomed the new incoming student course from New York. We were thrilled meet the Hunter College & Manhattan College students, as well as their professors. We introduced the students to the DCP still cameras and slates, given them instructions and pointers on collecting images for photo-ID. All three of us were able to join this large group on the boat today! The researchers, DCP and NYC-alike, were eager to collect videos and sound recordings with the assistance of the students.
Tuesday was another great day with Bimini Adventures’ group visiting from New York. To start the day, Kel gave the students a lecture on photo-identification and the importance being able to identify individuals. At the end of her presentation, Kel let the students practice identifying individuals. She gave them a photo and asked them to name the dolphin in it based off photos of a subset of individuals in DCP’s catalog. They were able to identify Trudy (#57) quickly from her distinctive dorsal fin. Others, like Addie (#84) took a bit more time.
On Saturday we started the 4th of July off with a dolphin lecture aboard the Coral Reef II (Shedd Aquarium). We took a small dingy out to the boat and we were happy to teach the Chicago area high school students about DCP and the spotted and bottlenose dolphins found off Bimini. The students had great questions about the local impacts of construction and the dolphin population and interspecies mating. They enjoyed posing for photos with the mini MVA camera system.
Thursday was another long day out on the boat for the new DCP interns. They left the shore around noon and didn’t get back until sunset. We hoped that we may have gotten a few more sightings in with the early departure time but that didn’t seem to be the case on Thursday. Today at least, the dolphins around Bimini just weren’t that active earlier in the day. It wasn’t until around four that we had our first sighting: A mother calf pair of spotted dolphins zipped by the boat.
Kali and Lauren were the intern-duo on Wednesday’s boat trip. It was Kali’s first time getting out and search for the dolphins so she was pretty excited after hearing all about Ellyne’s encounters yesterday. We left the dock around noon with our expectations set high. The waters were clear and bright blue with the sun glimmering off the surface. As we cruised along so did the time with no sightings of dolphins. Around three Kali started to get worried that she wouldn’t get the chance to see anything on her first day out.
Monday’s boat trip began early as the camera crew wanted as much time on the water as possible! Lauren was the only one on the boat today, and with a departure shortly after 9:00am, dolphins were nowhere to be found until around 11:45. Then we came across a group of about 13 spotteds! In the group were Stefran (#82) and her little calf, along with unnamed #102! The group did not seem too interested in people, and after a while they scattered about looking for and chasing after fish.
Tuesday was an excellent day on the boat for interns Ellyne and Lauren. We started before noon and found 10 spotted dolphins an hour later. The group included Lil Jess (#35, pictured here) with a calf and Leslie (#80) who was, somewhat surprisingly, still hanging out with her older calf, unnamed (#99). We had thought that #99 was independent from mom this year, but perhaps they are still transitioning.