Our morning data collection session was characterized by excellent weather. Our first full sunny day! Drone data collection was a success with John getting a good angle (see featured photo) and Don assisting in observing the drone while in flight. The dolphins were cooperative and interactive with each other!
Mr. French tried to get Camille to play with him, but she resisted as she was focused on data collection!
We spent a few minutes after the session reviewing the space use data collection.
After breakfast, we had a Q&A session while we waited for the shuttle to Maya Key for our visit with the animals and a lovely snorkel on the reef to Maya Key’s south. In addition to a French Angel fish, we saw several squid and lots of tiny fish. The animals around the island were fun to observe. It was a good day in and on the water!
Our afternoon was spent in the classroom with Dr. Kanatous gaining a broad introductory view to physiology, field work, and life more generally. We had a good exchange and discussion and got experience thinking outside the scholastic box. After a delicious dinner, we completed our first interim survey, viewed three perspectives of video (drone, back-facing GoPro, and front-facing GoPro), and practiced our dolphin ID and recognition. Our blog entries are below.
Harry – I really enjoyed the lecture by Dr. Kanatous, and it really opened up my mind to many of the things that can be questioned but are easy to put aside in the moment.
Aradely – Today was an amazing experience. I’m glad that I have progressed in my skills and have tried diving down while snorkeling.
Jackson – Today was a wonderful day. I saw a French Angel fish, which was really cool.
Isabelle – I’m slowly getting better at identifying the dolphins and I’m mildly impressed with myself.
Zack – I saw a lot of cool animals both in captivity and the wild today that I did not think I’d see this trip – like the jaguar, puma and cuttlefish. Those were really cool.
Jaelynn – after today, I will question everything.
Tori – for the first time snorkeling a reef, I got to see some cool animals like the cuttlefish, parrotfish, and the largest cruise ship on Earth!
Camille – learning to put my snorkel on the left side of my mask saved me from suffering water.
Delaeni – Sea turtles can remember where they were born, even 10-15 years later!
Nicole – I will never look at a grape the same again.
Don – Slate boy duties and three dives!
John – The nicest day so far!
Manon – it was nice to see young minds at work during Dr. Kanatous’ lesson.
Shane – Still very impressed by students.
Tomorrow, we have our first boat snorkel and our night snorkel planned, as well as data collection and some lectures.
Cheers
CSU RAMS (Really Awesome Mammal Snorkelers)