Category: Blog & Field Reports

During Sunday’s morning break, some of us explored down the beach and saw the Galant Lady. We continued on to the southern tip of the island, to the old sea wall. It was a great spot for photo shoots – the models we saw leaving must have agreed. Back in class we discussed group living and costs and benefits of a social life. There are different types of group living, including fission-fusion society versus matriarchies, for example. Then, Nicole shared the short-version of her doctoral work.

Friday morning’s class covered research methodology, including the science behind DCP’s mobile video acoustic array (MVA). We also talked about ethograms and their use in studying animal behavior. We used our morning break to search for non-US KitKats, but alas, we had to settle for the U.S. versions. Our search will continue…
We had Caesar salad for lunch (!) and then departed just before 14:30 in search of dolphins.

*Ka-chow* The Colonels wake up in a fright! Don’t worry, no murder mystery here, but there was thunder and lots of rain. We were worried that we would have to use up our 2nd weather day, but by about 10:30 the sky seemed pretty much done. So, we had a little excursion back to South Bimini – with the bugs – to the SharkLab! We saw baby lemon sharks with tour guides Sarah and Wajeh. We learned some fun facts, like nurse and lemon sharks are so flexible that they can bite their own tails.

Wednesday morning’s breakfast crew slapped (once again, if they do say so themselves). Our class topic was photo-ID. We learned why it’s important, in Bimini, to rely first on dorsal fins and later on other parts of the body when keeping track of individual bottlenose dolphins. We discussed the age classes of the dolphins, particularly the Atlantic spotteds. We went into more details on the spotted dolphin’s spot patterns and how those are used to identify individuals. We spoke a lot of #087 (Tilly) and #064 (Prince William) and their run-ins with sharks.

We started Tuesday with breakfast (Bimini breeeeaaaaddd….yuuuuuuuuummmmmmm) and then we headed to The Dolphin House. We met Ashley Saunders, the builder/artist who created The Dolphin House. He is a local historian, poet, musician – the Swiss Army knife of Bimini. It was really cool to see how he takes forgotten scraps and turns it into the house. Sam was amazed at how he can look at what others would consider trash and turn into a building. He told us about his labor love, and his positive energy was contagious.

Monday began with learning more about DCP and the dolphins we are going to see here in Bimini. We learned where the dolphins’ ranges are, how to distinguish between the two species and about spotted dolphins’ spot patterns. We didn’t know that each individual has a unique pattern – fingerprints! We learned how to tell the difference between males and females: males look like an exclamation point where as females have a long slit and mammary slits. We also had our boat safety and dolphin swim etiquette orientation.

We are back in the swing of university courses at DCP’s Bimini, The Bahamas field site. This time it’s Dr. Radhika Makecha and 14 Eastern Kentucky Colonels for 12 nights. The bar is high after the great UNBSJ course and we have even higher hopes this program. As usual, the students will be taking over the DCP blog – we hope you enjoy it!
-Nicole & Kel
On Sunday, our flight from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini was the shortest flight we’d ever been on: 16 minutes from take-off to landing.

We just received notice from Wanderer Bracelets of the new video showcasing their dolphin bracelet and DCP! 
Newcomers to DCP’s web site might not know that Wanderer Bracelets is a supporter of DCP’s research and education programs. In fact, DCP receives 10% from the sale of each Wanderer dolphin bracelet! Take a look at the video they just finished.

Friday was the UNBSJ students’ last full day on Bimini. It has been a really great group! Nicole and I always look forward to our Bimini field courses and this was no exception. The students spent the morning writing yesterday’s blog post and discussing eco-tourism in the context of their experiences this week. Then it was skiff rides to a small mangrove island on the edge of Bimini harbor.

Thursday morning, we had lecture time – topics included coral reefs, lionfish and the Bahamas Marine Mammal Stranding Network. During the network talk, we learned about DCP ID#104 (aka “Lamda”) who stranded last summer and was rescued, rehab’d and released. His tagging info was really interesting (he went so far!!) and Kel is clearly obsessed with seeing him again (see this blog post for details on his last sighting).
Our boat trip began with a snorkel stop at “The Bimini Road” (aka Atlantis, The Road to Atlantis).