Bill and I were up early and I was in the water by 06:40 AM to begin recording the dolphins’ behavior and interactions. It was a good session and the underwater visibility was better than yesterday. The younger individuals still are more inquisitive than not about me and my camera, but I am also recognizing the individual marks more readily to know exactly who is poking and prodding me! Ronnie, Anthony, Ken and Bill are often culprits.
I spent a bit of time in the early afternoon chatting with the trainers and looking at the dolphins from topside for some ID information. It was good to know I remembered the permanent scars each animal has, and then to learn about the new, fresher rake marks. I’ll have sketches ready and new video for our Wallingford DRT team to view and practice ID analyses.
Our DCP Eco-tour team arrived on the last flight of the day. We have Gail, Barclay, Mike and Cindy here with us this week. Each individual is quite enthusiastic about helping with the research … which is good because we’ll have an early AM session each day to maximize our use of good underwater visibility (mostly in the mornings).
Tomorrow begins assisted data collection.
Till then,
Kathleen