Tag: older content

On Wednesday, DCP’s third 2011 summer intern, Sabena, joined Alexis and Brittany in Bimini. Sabena had the opportunity to explore the terrestrial part of the island on a bike ride and also experienced the marine environment during a swim off the beach. Later in the day, after she settled in, Sabena began her first day of office work. She spent a few hours on the new DCP field laptop learning how to enter the Bimini sighting data that we record from our dolphin trips.

Tuesday was a well-earned day off for Brittany and Alexis. They spent the day resting, hanging at the beach and exploring the island, by bike and on foot.
Kel got called on a last minute dolphin trip with Bimini Undersea. Thankfully the mild effects of Tropical Storm Brett on Sunday night had fully subsided and these seas were once again flat, flat, flat. The boat passengers were fantastic, asking great questions and spotting the dolphins! At first we only saw a few, but we quickly realized that were in the midst of a very large group of dolphins.

On Monday morning, we were picked up by boat and chauffeured to the Coral Reef II, the Shedd Aquarium’s research vessel, to give our second talk of the month to Shedd’s High School Marine Biology program. We shared a little about DCP and the research conducted out here on Bimini with the students.

On Sunday we departed on another Bimini Undersea dolphin trip with a full boat of passengers all eager to get a glimpse of our underwater friends!  We were glad to see the water was especially blue and

Saturday’s trip with Bimini Undersea began at 15:51 after a loud and wet thunderstorm passed over Bimini. Luckily for us, the weather cleared up just in time and the remainder of the day was a beautiful Bimini day! At 16:47 our boat captain thought she saw some splashing typical of dolphins, but when we got closer we couldn’t find them. However, 10 minutes later we saw something strange in the distance and went to check it out.

Friday was double duty once again with the DCP team split between two boats. Kel headed out first and the small group of humans was thoroughly enjoying the flat seas and endless sunshine. The first dolphins to greet us were young and included, we think, ID#094. The two were not physically interacting much, but possible-ID#094 did appear a bit agitated. This is understandably so as she had a small, but fresh wound on her left side. Since they were not interested in swimming with us, we continued on.

As the interns headed out to sea on Thursday they were amazed by the calm, beautiful blue water!  It was almost completely flat and glass-like in some areas making it a perfect day to spot dolphins from afar!  We sighted a group of about seven bottlenose dolphins early in our trip very close to shore but we moved on quickly as they didn’t appear interested in a swim.  Not long after we sighted a second group of bottlenose, and though we attempted to get in the water with them, they swam off as soon as they noticed our presence.  As

Today was another day of split up boat trips. Alexis and Brittany headed out at 13:06 and within 20 minutes saw a group of about 10 eagle rays swimming by! After we watched them for a bit we moved on to 3 Sisters for our snorkel swim.

The interns departed on Tuesday at 1530hrs excited and eager to encounter more dolphins!  We sighted a group of about nine spotted dolphins at around 1700hrs who were very much on the move and swimming fast back toward Bimini.  There were at least two calves in the group and we were even able to spot Trudy (#57), Split Jaw (#22), and Romeo (#10)!  The group was pretty rambunctious;

Monday was a DCP filled day! It started out early with a talk with the Bimini Undersea’s passengers. We discussed what DCP’s research entails and answered many great questions from the curious passengers. Thank you all! After our talk it was time for dolphin trips and we had two trips as our trips were again split up.