Getting the apartment set up and waiting for dolphins Well, we've arrived and finally have internet access! We got here on Monday night and have spent the past few days reacquainting ourselves with the island and all our friends from last year. It's great to be back and I think we're finally settled in and… Continue reading Settling in again
Category: Bimini
Weather Watch
A calm day this morning, but no boat trips. Typhoon #4 spent the day moving north over Okinawa – on the very western side of Japan. It is sending wave swells and wind and rain our way but will not go over us directly. We are waiting to see if the ferry arrives tomorrow bringing with it the students from Camp Zama.
It rained off and on today and no boats went out to sea for dolphin watching. We did not even see any dolphins from the pier in the morning or late afternoon hours.
Preparing for travel
Kelly and Kathy prep to go back to the islands Things are mostly in order and we are getting ready to go back to Bimini to start DCP's 4th field season on the island – and Kelly and Kathy's second. This summer we'll have the Top Dawg housing and camera like last year, but also MVA1 without the click detector, and an underwater digital camera so we should have plenty of pictures to share with you! We should arrive with any luck in the early afternoon on June 7th.
Last two trips!
Less than an hour our, we came upon 4 dolphins, being joined shortly after by ten or so more, and everybody wanted to play. The group was extremely vocal, making some intense pulsed sounds and blowing bubbles at us, circle swimming and chasing each other and having a grand old time. We saw Swoosh, Split jaw, Underbite, Big C, Chop Fin, White Blotch, #17, #12, and whole bunch more (we still need to pour over that video).
Where’d they go?
Though a bit calmer today than the past few days, we still had a hard time finding dolphins. Came across some bottlenose that weren't too interested in us at all, then a mother-calf pair who stuck around the boat for a bit but really wanted nothing to do with the people.
Just as we were heading home, there they were, a big group of adults chasing a school of fish mercilessly. Dives and jumps and such, and very focused on the fish, not on us, not even on the boat.
High seas and stormy weather.
An hour into the trip, thankfully, we were approached by two young calves riding the five foot swells and our bow wake. A bottlenose joined them briefly but then took off, and the moms came out to keep any eye on the little ones. Our first attempt in the water was not welcomed by moms, but after bribing them with bow rides, we were able to join all four of them for over a half an hour.
The moms appeared to be teaching the calves how to feed by echolocating on the sand and burrowing for the catch.
Close encounter with the Guld Stream, and bottlenose galore!
Another late night the other day. Had some in and out encounters and some strong currents, but on the final entry we were able to spend some quality time with Cleopatra (#41) and Juliette (#12). They hung out with us for twenty minutes or so, foraging and playing and just milling around. At one point they both went after one of the passenger's fins, which we got a kick out of. We reluctantly left them when we ran out of daylight.
Getting a little feisty
After a few brief sightings and some frustration among the passengers, we finally encountered dolphins around 7:30. It was a mixed group, fairly large, with some rambunctious calves messing around. From the boat, we observed a lot of tail slapping and leaps. From underwater, we observed one juvenile repeatedly fluke slapping another juvenile, with a nonplayful implication. In fact, one of the group leaders was accidentally whacked by a rogue tail in the melee.
We wandered into deeper water with the dolphins and the group became interspecied and included over 15 animals.
Interspecies mingling…
Today's trip included a snorkel stop at Atlantis but before we even got there we found ourselves beside a large group of bottlenose that more or less ignored us. We maintained visual on them during the snorkel stop and caught up with what we believe was the same group after we were done with our snorkel but they still wanted nothing to do with us. We took the hint and moved on.
A half hour later we came across four more bottlenose dolphins who engaged in some fancy acrobatics.
A full day of dolphins
Every new group of passengers is briefed on the dolphins and informed about how to swim with them before the start of each trip. The policies of no touch and no chasing are stressed, and passengers are always receptive to this. This group was no exception. The AM group consisted of a whole bunch of kids and their parents, along with two friends from back home, all equally eager to swim with dolphins.
After two hours of searching we caught some spotteds on our bow, 4 class 2 animals, one with a large scar down his side.
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