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.
Water-testing the MVA3 Robin's bag did not arrive, so I was the one to jump in with the empty MVA3 housing. The MVA3 is the third version of the mobile video/acoustic array that we finished building on Sunday afternoon. John help and did most of the fabrication for the MVA3. We will post pictures at some point before the end of October.
Well, this housing is mechanical and one of the DAT (echolocation click recorder) glands leaked. Not bad, just a trickle, but too much.
A shuttle ride, three flights & another shuttle ride to get to RIMS & AKR. Robin Paulos is one of my graduate students at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is studying the ontogeny of dolphin behavior and comparing the spotted and bottlenose dolphins that DCP has been studying. Why do I mention her here? Well, Robin is my field assistant for the next 6 weeks.
We both were exhausted after our long days of travel but full of excitement at the newly beginning program.