DCP is pleased to welcome our 2013 summer interns, Nicole and Salma, to Bimini! After working hard at our Connecticut (USA) office for the last six weeks, they made way their way to our Bimini field site on Monday.
Nicole: I started the trip to Bimini a day early with a drive down from Connecticut to the Newark airport where the first flight would take off. Monday morning began with impressive New Jersey traffic but I still made it in time to check in. An uneventful plane ride to Ft.
Category: Bimini 2013
Young dolphins, playing with their food!
On Wednesday, I was finally able to get back on the water. A major squall was threatening to the south, but as the guests enjoyed their snorkel at “3 Sisters,” we watched as it just fell apart, leaving only sunny skies in its wake. So, with optimism, we headed into “the dolphin grounds…”
In the midst of our chatting, the dolphins appeared, seemingly out of nowhere! At first it was just one, then two, then three…until there were five young dolphins, with no adults in site.
Long hours, good data and productivity all around
We had such a great week in Bimini that our field reports had to take a back seat! We’ll fill you on everything…
On Monday, we joined another boat trip in search of Bimini’s dolphins with the BBC film crew. The dolphin observations were great. There was a large group of spotteds and their interactions included lots of physical contact, postures and range of vocalizations. Included in the group were several males (Split Jaw #22, Prince William #69, Tim #69, Speedy #78, un-named #95) and females on the outskirt (Tina #14, Lil’ Jess #35).
Kathleen, Justin and Kel – Oh, My!
On Saturday, Kathleen and Justin arrived on Bimini, marking the first time that we have all been together at one of DCP’s field sites – ever! It took us no time to get to chatting about all things DCP. Before we knew it, it was definitely time to call it a night as we have a big week ahead of us…
On Sunday morning, we all met at the Sea Crest while awaiting the arrival of the BBC film crew we’ll be working with this week. After a short delay, we headed into the breeze in search of dolphins.
Give back, get sun and say goodbyes
On Sunday the SHU students gathered for breakfast, still excited from their big day with reef fish, dolphins, stingrays and sharks yesterday. But, after nearly two weeks on Bimini, they took just a short bit of their morning to give back to this wonderful, welcoming island and did a beach clean-up on Radio Beach. Thankfully, there actually wasn’t all that much litter (although the bags collected still meant too much!), but they collected what they found and then cooled off in the Bimini blue sea.
Give back, get sun and say goodbyes
On Sunday the SHU students gathered for breakfast, still excited from their big day with reef fish, dolphins, stingrays and sharks yesterday. But, after nearly two weeks on Bimini, they took just a short bit of their morning to give back to this wonderful, welcoming island and did a beach clean-up on Radio Beach. Thankfully, there actually wasn’t all that much litter (although the bags collected still meant too much!), but they collected what they found and then cooled off in the Bimini blue sea.
How sacred is this heart?
On Saturday, we started with our last dolphin survey. We snorkeled at “3 Sisters,” specifically the big sister, on the way. We saw a butterfly fish, puffer fish, an eel, parrotfish, some of us saw the sea arch through the rock. We weren’t used to the snorkel time before dolphins, so lots of us got sunburned by the end of the trip! We were searching and searching, with the waves increasing, and thought we would go back to shore without dolphins.
“I see it!” “I see it too!” (that’d be the sun!)
On Friday, we had the morning off – we spent the day at the beach and wandered through the straw market. Some of us got a few braids in our hair and we all ordered lunch at CJ’s, the food stall on the beach. Although we were planning to eat at the picnic tables, the flies had us running for the hotel!
In the afternoon, we had a long, good discussion on ecotourism.
Day on Land to Solve a Puzzle
Our Thursday morning began with a discussion on interspecies interactions, specifically between the spotteds & the bottlenose of The Bahamas. We covered two articles and Kel went into more details on her work here in Bimini, including watching video clips from earlier this week. It was interesting to see the different observations and conclusions that came out of both studies, and the different approaches to interpreting aggression and sexual behavior, and the overlap of each. Research certainly evolves over time.
During our afternoon break, we went to The Dolphin House.
Thanksgiving in Bimini
Wednesday was as another morning dolphin trip, but in our roughest water yet. It was nearly 3 hours into the trip before we saw our first dolphin – and at first, we couldn’t find it again! But, luckily, we found it again, and wasn’t alone! We watched this group of bottlenose from the boat; the group was fairly large, with at least a dozen individuals at first, and they were very active. We did not have much time, so half of our group got in the water to observe them, unsure if they would stay.
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