Category: Bimini

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’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.

    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.

Sunday’s passengers were only here for the day, so everyone was hoping for a great encounter! We found dolphins just past north rock, which is closer to the island than most of our sightings. It was an adult and a calf, and it was the calf’s leaping and splashing that caught our attention. Once we caught up to the pair, we saw that the youngster was one of the dolphins we saw on Tuesday. Recognized by a notch in the peduncle, we saw that today the calf had a new injury to its right side.

    The conclusion of our first dolphin week has left us 7 for 7 in sightings and encounters–seeing dolphins 7 trips in a row is rare. We had a great group of passengers who were very interested in the dolphins and our research and even helped us with IDs! Our talk with passengers on Monday to introduce the research was very well received.

Darcie arrives in Bimini on June 16 This is a special guest field report from Darcie Blanding! I arrived on Bimini on 16 June to spend a month learning from Kathy and Kelly. I brought the Top Dawg housing with me so we now have it as well as the MVA1 to continue the spotted dolphin research for 2004. I've spent the last two days getting acquainted with the island, taking bike rides with the girls to learn locations.

Here in Bimini, DCP researchers go on dolphin encouter boats operated by Bimini Undersea. Most of Bimini Undersea’s dolphin trips are in the form of week-long programs in which the same group of passengers comes on the boat each day, Sunday through Thursday. This gives passengers a chance to experience multiple kinds of encounters and learn a bit more about the dolphins.
    Today’s trip started out slowly, but around 6 o’clock we came across a group of six bottlenose dolphins, one of which looked quite young.

    After not being out on the boat for over a week, Saturday’s trip was a success. Found dolphins just before six o’clock and they stayed with us for an hour. From the surface we observed a large group of adults engaged in what appeared to be mating. Once in the water, the first two encounters were with 3 subadults who were moderately interactive with the passengers.

A very successful visit with the dolphins Yesterday was our first trip out to the dolphingrounds and we had multiple successful encounters. The boat was crowded but there were plenty of dolphins for everyone. The first encounter was with a mother and calf – the mother we believe to be 56, a common visitor to our boats last year, and we believe her new calf.