SM2M Deployed!

This morning brought another early session. I collected
about 30 minutes of data before 7:30 AM when our team was preparing to head out
for an early morning dive. Hector and Han decided my fins were the best thing
since sliced bread and nibbled on them. It’s a bit disconcerting to have to
stop and elevate my feet into the air to get the dolphins to ignore me.

The afternoon brought a chance to deploy the Song Meter SM2M
Marine, from Wildlife Acoustics (see photo). John, Nicole and Nate helped me
with the deployment. John filmed from below while Nate and Nicole handed me the
SM2M with the 24 pounds of weight for placement.

The SM2M will let us record
dolphin sounds over each 24 hr period from today to Friday. We attached the passive
acoustic recorder to a piling in the dolphin pool and watched as several of the
younger animals and their moms swam by to check out the yellow tube! I think
they were more interested in John’s bubbles from SCUBA, but a least one
individual supervised my tightening of one strap to secure the recorder to the
piling! We got quite a bit of data today and both Nicole and I (at least) are
getting to know the scratches and other ID marks on the younger dolphins, as
well as remembering the marks on the older individuals.

Tomorrow brings more data collection!

Cheers

Kathleen