Kathleen and Kel just returned from a whirlwind trip to Nassau, Bahamas. We arrived on Friday 4 November and were back on a plane Tuesday 8 November. In this short time we continued our data collection efforts at Dolphin Encounters on Blue Lagoon Island. Although we normally use our MVA to record video and acoustic data, this time we brought along our newest piece of equipment, the SM2M. You might remember the SM2M from our summer work in Bimini and this was our first chance to test it in a more controlled setting. The SM2M is a passive acoustic monitoring unit (you might hear these referred to as PAM units) passed to us by the folks at Wildlife Acoustics. Mother Nature made sure we did not second guess our choice to leave the trusted MVA behind; the wind picked up by day two and underwater visibility was almost non-existent! This photo was taken on day one – when we could still see the SM2M (secured to the piling) and the young male dolphin cruising past it! We completed 5 separate deployments of the SM2M; three were day deployments and two were overnight deployments and all five were in different locations. This will give us a sense of both ambient noise conditions and dolphin vocalizations. Lots of analysis ahead!
Radhika Makecha was our gracious host and we got plenty of brainstorming done for our May 2012 field course with Dr. Rebecca Singer (Georgetown College). And of course, a huge thank you to everyone at Dolphin Encounters for welcoming us once again and being so accommodating to our research goals. We look forward to our continued work at your facility!
Cheers,
Kathleen & Kel