Category: Blog & Field Reports

Wednesday was one of the hotter days aboard Renegade. We boarded Renegade with all the gear including the GoPro, the surface camera, and the data collection sheet. I was ready to help guests board the vessel to start our journey to look for our daily dolphins. It looked like a cloudy day to be on water, but the sun was still shining strong making it hot on board. As we searched, we thought we saw a splash. As we continued on, we received a radio message from another dolphin-seeking boat that they had just left some dolphins.

Tuesday was another great day out at sea! In the morning, Taylor and I continued our office work with some photo sorting, then right after lunch we met Kel at the Sea Crest to inventory the highly fashionable DCP shirts, tanks and rashguards. I couldn’t help myself and bought a bright green rash guard shirt with the DCP logo on the front.

Monday was our second boat trip with DCP’s eco-tour group, with Bimini Adventures. The day started with our normal routine of waking up with the sun, getting caught up on our office work, and then having a lunch break. It was an exciting day because we finished the office work that was assigned to us upon our first arrival on the island. We really felt a sense of accomplishment when we finished our last video log. We decided to celebrate a little bit and headed to the beach after lunch to cool off in the crystal-clear water.

Sunday marked the end to our boat trip hiatus! It has been a long 11 days of island life filled with photo sorting, video logs, and power outages. Taylor and I were super excited to meet the guests for the DCP eco-tour, done in collaboration with Bimini Adventures, for their orientation at the Sea Crest. I was so excited to see Bill, Ron, and John, all of whom I had the pleasure of knowing and meeting on the Roatan eco-tour trip this past October.

Even with the frequent power outages that have been occurring on the island, we have been trying to get a dose of our daily dolphins. Our days are filled with photo sorting or video logging of “our dolphins.” It isn’t the same as being out on the water with these beautiful creatures, but at least it’s something – and, it’s an important part of being a DCP intern. We took lunch breaks and went to the beach in our front yard.

Today was a great day on the island! In the morning, Taylor and I took the morning off to do some SCUBA diving at Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Center! It was Taylor’s first time under the sea as an open water diver.

Our routine is a little different now since our last boat trip was about a week ago. Life on land is not as exciting as being on the water looking for our daily dolphins. Nat and I have got into a new routine that involves waking up when the sun rises, taking a break for lunch, and then getting caught up on sighting data or photo sorting. We have been taking advantage of our beautiful beach that is in out front yard, but it is nothing compared to being on a boat.

These past couple of days have been filled with office work and short trips to the beach. We have just entered our long stretch of no boat days, which gives Taylor and I a great opportunity to get some photo sorting, video logs, and sighting sheets recorded and analyzed. On Thursday we began our day with a little bit of photo sorting and then headed over to Kel’s house to place a video call over to Marineland! We were happy to leave our little cottage because our cottage did not have power all morning.

Tuesday was an unusually long day aboard Renegade. We boarded our vessel at 11:00am and we headed due South, instead of our normal course to look for dolphins. Little did we know, that today was going to be one of our busiest days consisting of three different snorkel stops and looking for dolphins at the very end.  Our course was chartered for our first stop, the ray encounter, which was the furthest South. The very chaotic encounter involved a lot of friendly stingrays that seemed to love the human’s presence in the water.

On Sunday, I traveled from Florida to Nassau, The Bahamas, to collect some data on the dolphins at Dolphin Encounters (on Blue Lagoon Island). It is my return to collecting data underwater with my MVA2. The last sessions for me using the array was about half a dozen years ago. I’m only here for a few days to collect data and also to chat about two other studies we have ongoing or slated to begin this year. It is always a pleasure to head “into the field” … and this trip is no different.