It was data collection as usual including the silty underwater visibility this morning. But we got some good close-up views of Stan and Buzz, and Kami with Poli. Georgie and Trixie made a few passes as did Alita and Gracie, both engaged in pectoral fin contacts. Kathleen also saw Buzz nurse from Alita while Elli took a close look.
We left our snorkel gear at Bailey’s in anticipation of our encounter and swim with the dolphins. We’ve spent the week learning about their behavior and how to recognize each dolphin. You could say we “trained” for this event all week long! We waited for the boat to Bailey’s by the statue of three dolphins (loosely based on Elli, Gizmo, and Rocky) … can you see our excitement in the group selfie (feature photo)?!
During our encounter, we all got to meet Tilly and her human, Carl. You can see we all had giant smiles when we posed for photos with Tilly!
Our swims were awesome and better than expected. Georgie and Kami were playful and rambunctious and kept us entertained with close passes, contact, and sea grass play. After playing with/swimming with the dolphins, we did a shore snorkel on the backside of Bailey’s Key and had really good underwater visibility and played with non-mammal critters, including a big barracuda and two big rainbow parrotfish. We also saw a spotted snake eel.
Some of us did the afternoon dive. Two of us did the night dive. The rest of us looked at photos, read books, hung out, or reviewed the morning’s video data and updated our ID data files for the dolphins with new marks and scars. It was a good afternoon. Tomorrow is our last full day. It’ll start with data and then a few of us will try a shark dive while others will snorkel at some choice spots along Roatan.
Cheers
Marianne, Sue, Mickey, Kaylie, Bill, Michelle, Michael, Savanna, Manon, Kathleen
PS: Are you enjoying these updates from the ecotour? Envisioning yourself in the group? We still have space on our October 2025 Adult Education program. The difference? A bit more educational structure than a standard ecotour, but not as rigorous as a college field course. And of course, everything is optional!