Waiting and enjoying the heat and humidity Well, we are set and ready to go. The passengers should be here any time and we will leave port tomorrow morning. There are a few tropical storms on the horizon but all still looks okay. We had some amazing lightning displays yesterday afternoon. I also wanted to share with many of you a bit of information I received from a colleague still on Mikura Island in Japan studying the dolphins.
Underwater viewing ... Passengers left this morning and we will spend this afternoon and tomorrow morning readying the boat for the next group - cleaning the boat inside and out as well as prepping my research gear and reviewing data forms. So, I thought I'd take this message to share with you a bit about dolphin ages. Spotted dolphins are born without spots and as they age they acquire spots and continue to gain pigmentation throughout their lives.
A matter of definition. I wanted to take a few words and define 'sightings' and 'encounters' for all of you. A 'SIGHTING' is any time dolphins are seen from the water's surface. That is, we see a single or a group of dolphins and it is a sighting. We note time, number of animals, location, group type, activity of the group, direction of travel and a few other data points. An 'ENCOUNTER' is 3 minutes or more underwater with dolphins in visual range.