Of course, the day began with early AM data collection. Practice will make perfect (we hope) for space use and surface observation data collection while Kathleen is in and under water. You can see Stan (i.e., his fluke) circling her in the photo below.
Some of us are improving well on the dolphin ID recognition! After data collection, we had a light breakfast and then got ready for our dolphin encounter and swim! Since there were 19 of us, we split between Poli and Bailey with Yessan and Denry (trainers). You can see the feature photo of us in line waiting for Poli and Bailey. Our impressions of our experience (and the day) are below.
After our swim (which was spectacular!), we did space use data collection for another swim or intertidal observations. You can see us between scan samples under the palapa (it was HOT today when the wind was not gusting!) below and doing intertidal observations second below. We had some neat surface observations … as you can see third below, too. That said, when in the water, we did not see any ctenophores.
The afternoon brought us back to the RIMS classroom where we learned about sea turtles from Jen. Then we discussed our PSA assignments and entered data from the week. The evening wrapped up with Fiesta! We have maintained the DCP winning streak in spades! Dallas is Limbo Queen while Mario and Jonas are Limbo Kings. And, for the dance off, we have Nate, Jose, and Jonas with swinging hips!
Tomorrow is another full day … including our night snorkel!
Jose – I loved experiencing the connection the trainer and dolphins have as I got to watch the trainer playing with the dolphins during the swim. It was pretty fun to watch and experience.
Maddie – I enjoyed learning about the sea turtle conservation efforts in Costa Rica.
Kelly – The highlight of my day was Lightning swimming up to me and looking at me. He’s so cute!
Bella – It was oddly fun to be bumped multiple times by dolphins!
Nate – Snorkeling with dolphins was an experiencing to brag about and taking pano pictures during space use was a lot more fun than I expected.
Megan – I got to live out my KD/Manon dreams when Sandy came after my fins!
Robert – The highlight of my day was getting to see the dolphins up close and swimming with them!
TJ – I like dinosaurs and I learned my favorite sea turtle is the leatherback sea turtle and they can get up to 6 ft and 1,500 lbs!
Jonas – I have mixed feelings about the swim because at one point a dolphin swam up to my face and I did not know if they were gonna head butt me or kiss me. But they did neither and swam away gracefully.
Abby – I enjoyed doing flips underwater with Kami!
Jove – Getting to watch Bailey perform with her behaviors was worth the sunburn.
Brielle – I loved getting to meet the dolphins up close and I managed to identify Tilly during data collection.
Taylor – Today I almost got sandwiched between two groups of dolphins and I was unsure how it would play out … but all went well!
Annabelle – I liked seeing the dolphins and the fish swim around in their habitat.
Dallas – I really enjoyed getting to hear the different perspectives on dolphins in human care and all the conservation efforts around the world being done to help sea turtles.
Mario – After playing fetch a couple of times with the dolphins, one of them mistook my hair for sea grass. But all went well.
Heather – It’s always magical swimming with dolphins and watching the students connect with them in their environment.
Melissa – Really enjoyed getting to know all the students better and I look forward to seeing them on campus again in the fall.
Manon – I was grateful for the good underwater visibility during the dolphin swim so that everybody could enjoy seeing the dolphins in their environment.
Cheers
StMU R3