After staring at screens until we thought our eyes were going to fall out of our heads, we seem to have made a bit of a dent in processing data and ID animals. Needing a break from computers and cameras, we headed down to the Villas to talk with the folks on the Dolphinswim program (passengers on the boat for this week). The group was very interested in our work and had some interesting questions and concerns for the dolphins, especially those in other waters that might be in danger of being hunted.
Category: Bimini
So many boats, so few dolphins.
On this tiny little island, there are surprisingly many dolphin boats. As we got out to the dolphin grounds, we saw that all four were out in full force, many already with dolphins. It wasn't until 3 hours into our trip that we were able to find some of our own.
This was a group of 6 dolphins initially, only 3 of which stuck around including one rambunctious little calf. Our suspicions are that the adult was one called Ebony, but our ID photos are a bit limited for this animal so we aren't sure.
Bottlenose and Babysitting
Trip 17 brought some interesting observations, though not much in the way of video. First a group bottlenose about ten minutes after leaving the dock, in the same place we'd seen the spotteds in the shallows the night before. Though not very interested in the boat, they let us follow them for a while, watching them feed.
Out on the dolphin grounds, we came across a group of 4 young, unmarked spotted calves and one adult, in a babysitting situation.
New IDs and new theories
Came across a large group of adults on Tuesday, although we were only able to identify two of them from the surface. We're hoping to get a look at some underwater footage from Brett and get positive IDs on the other 5 animals. It was the first all adult group we have seen so far.
Also met Split Jaw (#22) for the first time this season, and the 'Soggy Bottom Girls.' Though they weren't much into swimming with the passengers, they hung around for a bit, bowriding, and playing in the wake.
Mother/calfs galore!
We saw at least three mother-calf pairs on the tenth. Our IDs were from topside observations, so we cannot confirm who they were (with the exception of possibly Freckles), but they were quite entertaining. Our first sighting was of two M/c pairs, one calf with a ramora stuck to its side which it was not happy about at all. The calf was using any means possible to remove the annoying hitchiker, to the delight of passengers on board.
Week three
After a short dry spell this week has proved to be an exciting one. We started off with a group of six individuals who were raring to play. One of our more frequent visitors, #16 or 'Dancer' gave us quite a show with her bubble rings and seaweed chases, as well as going after one of the passenger's fins! Also in the group was #41, Cleopatra, who is a beautiful older class 3 and was very interested in us.
First two weeks
We're more or less settled here in Bimini, with only one or two small things unresolved. Our arrival went a lot smoother than we expected and we were, much to our surprise, able to get out to the dolphingrounds the afternoon of our arrival. Since then we've managed 8 more trips which we've collected environmental and sighting data for, 2 of which we were able to get in the water and take some video of the dolphins.
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