The morning observation sessions are filled with social behavior and much rubbing and curiosity behavior by the dolphins. However, this morning began slightly differently: the pool seemed very quiet when I slipped into the water. Almost too quiet. After about 90 seconds, I was startled by Hector who was just suddenly at my left side and in my space. He seemed to have a glint in his eye as he kept pace and then moved slowly to my right and out of view. I can just imagine his thoughts … “ha! Got her this morning!”
At 10 am we took a bus ride over to AKR’s Osgood Cay and spent the next several hours snorkeling the shallow reef, reading books (all of us!), eating lunch, and listening to and watching the Garifuna dancers of the island present their native dance and song. Very neat indeed. Our return to RIMS/AKR was punctuated by more swims and dives from the porch, a game of verbal hangman (I guess that is the name), and a hearty discussion about dolphin social behavior. It is hard to beat our two-level porch on the dock at AKR as an outdoor classroom.
Tomorrow is our last data collection session and our second dolphin encounter/swim for the DRT team.
Until then,
Kathleen and the DRT team
P.S. The temperature today reached 110°F!