Category: Bimini 2004

Despite our eagerness to get out on the water, there were no dolphin trips this week. So, we spent the week introducing Justin to the exciting world of video logging as we were able to complete all 4.5 hours of footage from Dolphin Encounters in Nassau. It was a bit different from logging the wild footage—sometimes a bit easier since there was never more than 5 dolphins in any given pool session, compared to the sometimes 20 animals here in Bimini.

Hello everyone – a special first report from Justin Gregg. I’ve just arrived here on Bimini following a harrowing but exciting seaplane trip – my first! I’ll be here for one month learning all I can about the research being conducted in Bimini by Kathy and Kelly for DCP. Bimini is great so far – very hot and very relaxed; a big change from where I live in the bustling city of Dublin over in Ireland. It took me all of 10 minutes to receive my first sunburn.

After an eight-day hiatus from the open ocean, I (Kelly) was able to get back out on Destiny and see the wild Atlantic spotted dolphins again. We spent over one hour and twenty minutes with a lone spotted who was unfortunately recovering from an injury. We can’t be sure what the injury was from exactly, but it looked like it could have been from a fishing hook. We also couldn’t readily identify the animal, but it seemed to be doing well, despite its wound.

  Our time at Dolphin Encounters was a success!!!! We were able to record ambient noise 3 times a day in each of the 5 pools, came away with 4.5 hours of underwater video and over 100 digital ID photographs—a very productive three days and a big change from our usual routine. We awoke each morning at 6 a.m. and returned to our hotel around 7 p.m., unlike our schedule in Bimini where our work day begins at 2 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m.

We arrived at Dolphin Encounters (DE) in Nassau, Bahamas, with camera and hydrophone in hand, not knowing exactly what to expect. This was DCP’s first time working with this facility and we were sent in on behalf of DCP and Mystic Aquarium. It worked out well, considering Bimini’s proximity to Nassau and provided us, as research interns, with exposure to a different type of field work. Joining us this week is another intern, Kristine Sonstrom, who has been working with Dr. Peter Scheifele from the University of Connecticut.

Although we did not come off the boat with much MVA1 video footage, we were able to confirm that White Blotch (#29) is indeed pregnant! This is a good sign as we believe she lost her one year old calf last year. By the looks of things, she may give birth before the summer is through. In 2001, when she had her last calf, she was kind enough to come by the boat to show DCP researchers her 10 day old baby.

Today’s trip started off surprisingly with approximately 8 bottlenose dolphins. We were able to stay in the water with them for about 20 minutes. This is unusual for the bottlenose in this area, as they are generally uninterested in humans. We observed them crater feeding, a behavior that involves a dolphin echolocating on the sand and then burrowing its rostrum into the sand when it finds something of interest, usually a fish or an eel. One of the bottlenose had quite a bit of spotting on its belly.

Sporadic dolphin trips phone links, and prepping for Nassau We've had plenty of down time the past few days as the dolphin week at Bimini Undersea was cancelled last minute. So we've been keeping ourselves busy with data, adding animals to the catalog, keeping things up to date, going over video, and trying to get some good still shots of some old friends we haven't seen in a while to add to the catalog.

    Today marked the first day for the new Dolphin Immersion program at Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration (MAIFE). This program takes place twice a day in the Immersion Theater at the aquarium and features DCP’s research. It includes a live phone link with Kathleen from Japan in the morning and with us from Bimini in the afternoon.

We will not be going out on the boat until Saturday, so we have this week to log last week’s data. This will include entering trip logs into our computers, logging video and making as many IDs as possible.