Category: Blog & Field Reports

Our day started EARLY – most of us woke early and watched the sunrise (~5:15 AM). Our first observation session was preceded by space-use data collection. This brings our total number of research projects this week to three: behavior observations with the MVA, collecting creativity data on the female dolphins, and recording how dolphins use their lagoon and the various spaces in this lagoon.

There was a lot of object play during the first AM session and the dolphins actually showed interest in our surface observers (Bill, Ron, Rachel & Heather).

We had a very busy day! It began with an early morning observation session and included a second morning session about 1.5 hours later. During the first session, the dolphins were again silent except for echolocation clicks that seemed to be “whispered” at me when I was in the northeast corner of the lagoon area (near the water taxi arrival area). The dolphins were very focused on “something” (what we don’t know) off the reef to the north of Bailey’s and Anthony’s Keys.

We celebrated Melissa’s birthday after dinner with a delicious chocolate cake! Of course, that also meant that the rest of us had to clandestinely sign the birthday card when Melissa was not around (thank you to Heather for capturing our sneaky signing!).

Celebrating Melissa’s birthday was a great way to wrap up our first full day at AKR!

We had two data collection sessions with Champ the first to swim by my MVA and “say” hello. He made several circle swims around my camera in the first morning session.

The underwater visibility was very good today.

DCP’s first ecotour group since the COVID-19 pandemic derailed life as we all know it returned to Roatan and Anthony’s Key Resort today. (insert sigh of relief here!)

We traveled from California (Bill), Texas (Melissa, Rachel, Heather), Missouri (Ron), and Florida (me) … and even though travel was long and mostly normal, it was still a travel day! And we were all glad to return to AKR.

It was a bit windy this afternoon and early evening, but the sun was shining and the sea calm. And Heather and I went over the Bailey’s to greet the dolphins.

Bring some dolphin love to your Valentine’s Day this year!

This has been a very productive week here at Anthony’s Key Resort (AKR) and The Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS) for me and DCP. With Ron’s assistance, I was able to collect about 6.5 hours of video data with the MVA and GoPro cameras. (I’ll be busy for a few months logging these clips!) The weather mostly held for us – the underwater visibility was great and the current strength was variable (I earned my breakfast most mornings!).

Our last day of data collection went well, with the exception that the stronger current was back. Thus, I got a good workout with each underwater session! The day was full of play – moms with their calves, young dolphins (both male and female) were wrestling again, and there was seaweed and seagrass play, too! I was invited a few times to play with seagrass, and it was tempting, but I remained the observer to collect the video.

It is amazing how swiftly we can get into a pattern … early morning coffee, plus pastry, then data collection (twice) followed by logging notes, lunch, and then an afternoon dive for Ron and video review for me. This is a pattern I welcome!! And, one we have followed each day this week. Once more tomorrow …

I was greeted by continued good underwater visibility, though there was a bit of freshwater from an early rain squall at the surface. Several dolphins greeted me on entry (see cover photo of Stan, Tank, Champ, Elli, Lenca).

The morning was very quiet and I woke early to greet the day and watch the sun brighten the sky! I also watched an Egret get breakfast before we prepped for data collection. I was delighted by nearly zero current during our first observation this morning. Of course, I think some of the dolphins took every advantage of the clear water and no current because there were rough-and-tumble social groups in several spots in the lagoon at the same time.

The morning dawned calm with a slight breeze and I experienced a mild current and good visibility underwater. I was a happy dolphin researcher! Ron was also happy to stay dry while logging surface observations. And, there was much social activity above the water, as well as below the surface this morning! Of course, Lenca, Stan, Champ, and Tank repeated their fascination with my fins but I was VERY surprised by Ronnie’s behavior early in the first morning session! Ronnie seemed to get agitated with Stan when the latter was pulling at my fins.