It was a busy morning for AM data observation and video recording. From the surface there was quite a lot of upside-down swimming, synchronous upside-down pectoral fin slapping, jaw clapping and more. Under water Champ and Buzz were socializing with some chases and rubs and jawing! Trixie played with seagrass and her mom. Even Kami got into the sea grass play with Poli. After breakfast, we had our dolphin encounter and then swim. During the encounter we got to meet Ronnie and Elli, and you can see us surrounding Ronnie in our group photo! Today was Ronnie’s spa day with all the rubs our group gave him! We had a blast. And the swim was even better with good underwater visibility and much play between us and the dolphins. We also got to see several mom/calf pairs swimming in small groups. We practiced our dolphin ID recognition in person this morning. After our swim, we rinsed off and jumped back into the classroom to hear Manon give us a talk about Relationship Quality. Then, lunch, followed by a talk about operant conditioning and training by Teri, Assistant Director at RIMS. And, after that, we practiced more dolphin IDs … from the morning video. Some of us are getting better at recognizing the individual dolphins.
Sydney – I swam with the dolphins and got kissed by a dolphin (Ronnie) today. It was a really fun experience.
Julia – I never thought I would appreciate a rock as a gift until Elli, the dolphin, gave me one.
Natalie – I enjoyed the life changing experience today of swimming with many dolphins. And I enjoyed listening to assistant director of RIMS, Teri, talk about her methodology of how she trains the dolphins.
Blake – The dolphin experience was really amazing and the talks afterward really tied everything together.
Mel – I played keep away with sea grass with a dolphin and I won.
Grace – I enjoyed listening to the trainer (Yessan) speak on Ronnie’s behaviors during the dolphin encounter.
Isabella – It was interesting to watch the dolphins demonstrate the trained behaviors and then to learn about how they train those behaviors.
Hattie – I really enjoyed the dolphin encounter as I was able to touch Ronnie’s teeth.
Aria – I had an amazing time with the swim with dolphins and had a couple of dolphins play with my fins as we swam in circles.
Hannah – Ronnie is my favorite dolphin. And I also really enjoyed swimming with all the dolphins.
Kiki – Getting to swim with dolphins was very exciting and they were much larger than I had thought. And seeing the dolphins also helped with me getting better at identifying them in the video data.
Memphis – I really enjoyed snorkeling with the dolphins and also seeing the environment in which they live.
Shane – Very interesting morning of observations. Lot of upside-down swimming, upside-down biting of the water, and an upside-down pair swim.
Manon – During the swim, I made it snow and Kami loved it!
Tonight was Fiesta Night! Mel’s hermit crab came in runner up! Tomorrow is more data and the night snorkel!
Until then,
Cheers
The Waterproof Rams