The forecasted rain held off long enough for John to fly the drone while our CSU teams collected surface observation data and Kathleen collected the underwater observations of the RIMS dolphins. During our data collection session, rainbows were evident in partial and full-sky mode! Several of us took photos to remember the colors against the grey sky. The rain started during breakfast and made sure our ride to “the museum” for snorkeling was soggy. Getting wet in the rain meant the water felt much warmer! Our first boat snorkel was fun and included a few peacock flounders, a mobile brittle star, a sting ray, and several other fish, as well as several sunken statues of faces, a ship’s figurehead, and a shark eating something.
The late morning in the classroom was time for us to watch the sustainability video John made about AKR and his RIMS dolphins’ film. Both provided more information about how AKR and RIMS are promoting being green and conservation minded. We all were hungry for lunch after our snorkel and then returned to the classroom to listen to Jennifer’s talk about sea turtles. We had lots of questions and then spent time practicing our dolphin IDs and watched the video from this morning.
Kathleen had ended the session a few minutes early as the dolphins had no personal space this morning, as these photos can attest. Even Mr. French (feature photo) greeted her closely on entry!
Our blog entries follow.
Jackson – I watched a baby squid eat a baby fish, and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever witnessed!!!! I’m stunned.
Nicole – I am stoked I got to see a lionfish and I didn’t know that sea turtles weigh as much as a VW bug!
Delaeni – I found a cuttlefish in the ocean at night! It was really cute.
Isabelle – Don ruined my rainbow picture. 
Tori – I found out about a new bucket list idea – going to watch the Arribada of the sea turtles.
Harry – it was cool getting to see several octopuses and a puffer fish during the night snorkel.
Jaelynn – Loggerhead turtles have really big muscles in their head and that’s super awesome!
Zack – I learned there are only 7 species of sea turtle today.
Camille – Today I experienced my first night snorkel and I learned that sea turtles used to be REALLY BIG!
Aradely – I never thought I would be as interested in sea turtle conservation as I am and in maybe taking a path in that direction … but we shall see.
Don – I enjoyed the beautiful gift of a rainbow this morning!
John – I enjoyed Jennifer’s sea turtle talk today! I did not know that Hawksbill turtles are the only species with overlapping scutes.
Manon – I’m glad the weather forecast was wrong this morning so we could fly the drone.
Shane – Looking forward to our swim with dolphins tomorrow.
Tomorrow is another data collection session and then our dolphin encounter and swim. The weather is forecasted to be a bit icky, but we are hoping it holds off until afternoon.
Cheers
CSU RAMS (Really Awesome Mammal Snorkelers)