Category: Roatan 2003

Robin got wet, KD sizzled on the tower We spent an hour watching from the surface, quizzing ourselves on IDs and assessing activity level. Kathleen passed, Robin failed: 'no Robin, that's not Paya, that's Esteban.' After the first training session, Robin spent 30 min underwwater. Dolphins are ingenious and will play with just about anything in their environment – and we do mean anything! We observed BigBoy swimming near the bottom where eelgrass grows.

Research & Husbandry After an early morning underwater session. We went over to RIMS and observed husbandry procedures on two animals. We watched (and learned) as blood was drawn and blowhole cultures were taken. These medical 'checkups' are important in assessing and maintaining the health of the animals. Very interesting! Regular checkups are important for dolphins, just as for children, because they don't often show any behavioral signs of illness until it is too late.

The PM session revealed behaviors we had not yet witnessed here.

2 underwater recording sessions in dark water For most of today the dolphins were into their own thing. In fact, Mrs. Beasley seemed irritated beyond measure with Cedena. We have no clue what led to her behavior, but Mrs. B chased, jaw clapped and jawed at Cedena. Robin saw Mrs. B chasing Cedena and Cedena leaping ~3 m into the air! They'd quieted down by our afternoon session.
Whistles abounded … and were mostly audible and recorded on the morning 30 min session.

Our first stormy day on Roatan The breeze felt good and the storm clouds (and rainbows) were a stark contrast to previous days. Little rain fell but the clouds were full as evidenced by a few rainbows. One had its end at Bailey's Key … the dolphins were certainly not your ordinary pot of gold.
Our morning was spent with summaries and reviews. Our afternoon a break with a couple of novels and a nap.

A morning 30 min underwater session after training & swim We did our usual morning swim at 6:00 am (before data collection) and saw many brightly colored reef fish and squid. Very cool!
Our morning session at Bailey's Key began at 8:00 am with one hour surface observation to add to our knowledge of the daily activity patterns of these dolphins. Kathleen was in the water at ~10:00 am after the morning training session. The dolphins were VERY vocal – lots of whistles and some clicks.

A morning of summarizing, an afternoon in the water We've been in the water 12 days for 21 underwater observation sessions. We've gathered 15 hours of video with sound data and 14 hours of echolocation click data. We have spent 32 hours in surface observation: initially acquainting ourselves with the dolphin identities and when the MVA3 is in the water. We've spent another 26 hours beginning analyses of the videotapes. We've also slept and eaten a little bit.

Mika is the object of desire today We started at 7:15 am on a 30 min session that was soon lengthened to 60 min due to great underwater visbility (~12 m) and playful, social dolphins. There was much splashing and surface rolling suggesting much activity. This was confirmed by Robin.
Nuzzling of rostrum to body (rostrum, chest, belly) was seen among the older dolphins. The adult females had their calves in infant position (P3) for several minutes each.
At about half way through the session about 8 dive boats in a row went out for dives.

30 minutes underwater with the dolphins before 7:30 am Our 30 min session was withou the preamplifier for the camera hydrophone set. We are using passive hydrophones for the camera and they worked fine though the levels was a bit lower (as expected) than when recordings are made with the preamplifier. The whistles and clicks were still there.

Again this morning, we documented much rubbing behavior and slow swimming. We actually saw the two older adult females (Rita and Mrs. Beasley) on several occasions.

Lots of contact, rubbing and pectoral fin – pectoral fin rubs. Yesterday Eldon and Bruce gave us the okay to observe the dolphins before the first morning training session. We waited an hours and a half after sunrise to assure good light levels (Yes, we were awake at sunrise with anticipation.) Kathleen was in the water by 7:20 am and witnessed everyone rubbing various body parts on everyone else (technical terms).

Before and after water entries we use a volt meter to check the status of hydrophone and click detector voltage levels.

2 morning swim sessions, each 30 min We woke refreshed after a day away from research. A hike to the botanical gardens, yesterday, was well worth it. The dolphins were their usual cheery selves. We saw much rubbing underwater and a few tail slaps at the surface this morning. Paya and Esteban, the two adult males, did a reef dive with some tourists so we only watched 12 dolphins this morning.

We spent the afternoon, 4 hours, reviewing video. We are now half way through the logging of tape 3. We recorded tape 10 today.