Monday morning began with early AM data collection … with an overcast, threatening sky! See the featured photo to see what our weather started with today. It was definitely foreshadowing and foreboding! It was windy besides overcast and there was a choppy sea. Still, we had a good session and our first Space Use data collection, with Panos and Activity Level notations! We also got to observe Mr. French (below) with the group.
After breakfast and reviewing the morning video data and practicing ID recognition, we took the shuttle bus to Maya Key. About halfway through our reef snorkel, the skies opened and it poured! You can see us at the start of our snorkel below.
And, then you can see a photo from the Maya Key gift shop porch (new temporary dry lunch area) of the shoreline … there are actually 3 cruise ships in port in this area … barely visible in the rain and low clouds!
We had a good lunch, if a bit soggy, and then played a bit on the water slides near shore.
Our afternoon included a bit of free time to warm up and dry off and then Manon gave us a talk about Relationship Quality and Pair Swim positions. We’d read her newest paper and so it was cool to learn about the data from the author!
Our impressions from the day are below.
Camdyn – I enjoyed the boat ride home doing the macarena with other students after snorkeling in the rain.
Emma – I was excited to see a lot of new fish I’ve never seen before in the wild.
Annabelle – The scientific process is so much more than a question and answer.
Roxanne – I’m so impressed with the brilliance of my peers, and I am really enjoying my time with them.
Michaela – I enjoyed listening to the rain under the water.
Grace – I really enjoyed snorkeling on the reef since I haven’t been since 2021.
Cody – Snorkeling on the second largest coral reef made it feel like a vacation still.
David – I really enjoyed being able to experience a different part of the island, traveling to AKR’s Maya Key.
Madison – I’m happy that I can successfully identify 5 of the 20 dolphins.
Aubrey – Even with the rain, snorkeling on the reef with my classmates was a fun experience.
Emma J – I successfully befriended a duck today.
Kristen – I saw my first island chicken today. And I also rescued a lizard in our room.
Jamie – It’s so cool both how much we know about dolphin relationships and how much we don’t.
Justin – I was SUPER IMPRESSED with how quickly this team gained confidence in measuring space use and activity levels for the dolphins.
Manon – First time getting soaked at Maya Key NOT because of the snorkel. But, everybody enjoyed the water slide!
Tomorrow is our dolphin encounter and swim!
Cheers
The URI RAMbling Pod