Finishing tape 2 and starting tape 3 Nothing major today except finishing the video log for tape 2 and begining tape 3.
Category: Roatan 2003
Robin’s First underwater foray with MVA3
WOW! … Robin saw dolphins – lots of pair swimming and body rubbing but most dolphin IDs will come from the tape. Lots of whistling was heard.
Today's visibility was the best yet! Very clear and bright. We could see the young dolphins socializing and playing even at 3-4 m underwater.
Kathleen rounded out the morning with another hour of observation underwater.
Both great & icky underwater visibility sessions.
Technical terms for the good and bad of underwater video recording. We added another 1.5 hours of data: a few fluke (i.e., tail) kicks to the MVA3 hydrophones but nothing serious. Bill, 1.75 yr old male, alternated between Mika & Maury (both young females) for most of the morning hour. Much contact and rubbing was witnessed.
The afternoon saw the wind increase and visbility decrease leaving us to only 30 min of observation time. This turned out to be a good thing as we both crashed for hour long naps in the afternoon.
Avoiding the sun & salt
Giving our bodies a breather with data analyses Five days straight of data collection gave us more data on these dolphins than the 8 weeks in Japan this spring. We can see the hours of analysis time stacking up in front of us.
It took 9 hours in total to log the IDs and initial information from tape 1 (56 min). Of our 56 min recorded we had about 50 minutes with dolphins in view. Truly Amazing!
Late afternoon had us participate in the first DCP distance learning program with Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration.
The One Week Mark
AM & PM swim sessions with MVA3 Half of the observations this morning were spent with 4 youngsters – maybe Mika, Bill, Maury, & Ronnie. They were rolling, rubbing, and noisy and near shore. It was at times hard to follow one or two dolphins so Kathleen focused on the group.
Paya & Esteban, the 2 adult males, also swam right up to Kathleen and eyeballed her … at one point only Paya's rostrum was in the view finder …
Honduras Independence Day
Half hour morning underwater session Yeah … again the dolphins paid little mind to Kathleen and the array. The rain was interesting and loud when heard underwater. It also made Robin almost wetter than Kathleen!
In the afternoon we were able to finish another 20 min of video analyses – confirming dolphin ID's and assessing what was going on among the dolphins.
The island was full of music and celebration as today marked the Honduran '4th of July' delebration.
A windy day.
Low underwater visibility meant one session No such thing as a Sunday in the field! We recorded 56 min of video and sounds this morning and watched the dolphins whistle lots (okay we listened to the whistles but watched the bubble streams).
Video analyses began in the afternoon with 14 min of video processed. This means that we identified the individual dolphins in view of the camera. It took about 2.5 hours to do this.
Whistles Galore!
Finally the dolphins mostly ignore Kathleen. After about two minutes into the first entry today, the dolphins remembered that Kathleen with her green MVA3 was no fun. She would not interact with them! Our goal was mostly achieved with the dolphins not paying the camera or Kathleen much attention. Well, almost … Maury & Ronnie would periodically watch Kathleen from about 1 m behind her.
There was much play behavior – JAWing, whistling, echolocation chases and rubbing behavior – among the young dolphins today.
Finally – IN the Water!
For 1.5 hours of observation, ~1.4 hrs of data. We were in the water for 1 hour this morning with Kathleen recording. It was hard to get out and I almost lost track of time. Robin was making surface observations from the 10 m platform and documenting where the dolphins were in relation to the MVA3 & Kathleen. The dolphins were VERY curious about the MVA3 and Kathleen. But, she ignored them … even when two of the younger dolphins decided to first hit the right hydrophone with her rostrrum and then to kick it with his tail.
Surface Observations
Getting to Know the Dolphins Well, we were set with our gear but needed to now get to know the dolphins. There are 16 individuals and you'd think that would be easy for us to remember … considering we identify 165 at Mikura Island! But, these dolphins are quite scar free. Still, after 3.5 hours on a platform 10 m above the water we had a better idea of each individual. We also had two rather red sunburns.
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