Well, we spent the last two days drenched. Thank you Tropical Storm Barry! At least we didn’t have dangerous weather conditions, but it was enough to keep us off the boat yesterday & today. And, since we had various errands to attend to, it did mean that we spent lots of quality time with our rain coats. While in the house, Maria got her introduction to the photo-ID catalog, general points of the two species here, the Aquarium’s Dolphin Highlights program and video logging.
Category: Bimini 2007
We
I’d like to introduce you all to Maria Baetti, DCP’s newest intern! You can read about this year’s interns in the May Dolphin Gazette. Interns will be spending approximately 3 weeks here in Bimini and approximately 6 weeks at the DCP office in Connecticut. We’re all looking forward to it! So, Maria & I met in the Ft.
Are you sure this isn
Yup, you guessed it. Another cancelled boat trip. Today the forecast is 25-30 knot winds with gale force gusts and unfortunately it feels correct. Not exactly comfortable boating weather. So, I’m spending today organizing & making sure everything is in order for the arrival of our first 2007 intern next week. There will be a break in field reports for the next week, as I am returning to the States for Darcie’s wedding! It will be wonderful, but of course I am already looking forward to returning to the island –
Not much to report
Well, the title of this field report says it all. Yesterday the boat did not go out, but I was able to stop by the principals’ offices at each of the 3 Bimini schools to remind them that I am available to visit with any and all of their classrooms. Then it was home to work on the computer & TV. The plus side of all this wind is that I’ve never been so caught up on data entry!
Guess what?
The new group of Bimini Undersea passengers arrived yesterday – to 20 knot winds. Super. Yesterday’s trip was cancelled and since today felt ever so slightly less windy, the trip went. It began with a snorkel stop, but after that we could not safely get beyond the island. So, the trip consisted of pacing along the shoreline. It paid off in the end, as bottlenose were observed at the end of the day. I took as many photographs as I could, but the sea spray was more than I was comfortable exposing the camera too.
A field report from my day off
Just a quick note: Today I was able to go fishing in the deeper water (100-500 feet) north of Bimini. I didn’t do much of the fishing (although the rest of the group didn’t catch anything anyway!), but there was an accidental catch. Luckily, they were able to release this roughly 3.5 foot shark without any apparent damage. It was very cool to see so close! A friend thought that it was a dusky shark. Once I got home I had to do more research….It turns out that dusky sharks &
Scratch that
Well, things are always changing around here. Today we had an impromptu trip and we won’t have a trip tomorrow. It was a great group of passengers who were very patient with the random day at sea! Why was it random you ask….? Well, first of all, it was the most beautiful day we’ve had all month. So, the crew & I were quite happy to be on the boat, even though we were pretty tired from yesterday’s double trip.
A long day
Today was long, but productive. I did not get much underwater video data, but I did see Lil’ Jess (#35), Swoosh (#36), Juliette (#12) and possibly Tim (#69). They didn’t stick around too long, but I was still excited from the bottlenose we saw at the start of the trip to be disappointed…I haven’t been able to go through all of the photos yet, but I did see at least 5 bottlenose that were added to DCP’s photo-ID catalog last summer! FIVE!
Rough days continue
Yesterday the winds were northeast about 20 knots, so there was no dolphin trip. I did the weekly presentation with the passengers and they had a few other activities to keep themselves busy. I got caught up on some paperwork, although I know full well that “caught up” doesn’t last very long! Today we held our second test call to the aquarium. The real thing begins on Monday, 21 May, so for any of you folks who are in the Mystic, CT area, I’d love to “see” you there on Mondays &
A broken hose, late re-start and rough seas
Today was a bit unusual! We headed out shortly after 1500 and stopped at the “Bimini Road” (aka Atlantis) snorkel site. Once we stopped, it clear there was an engine issue. The fresh water hose was busted. It was so busted that rescue tape could not even handle it. So it was back to the dock around 1700. I thought that would be it for the day, but the passengers still wanted to head out. So, we tried again shortly before 1800. By this time the wind had picked up so it made for a messy ride.
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