Tag: older content

Thursday was a busy day. I was up, out and aboard the Coral Reef II early, where I had the pleasure of once again chatting with students from Chicago City Day School. Despite the early hour, these middle schoolers were bright eyed and filled with dolphin-related questions. Thank you to everyone in the program for their hospitality, interest and support of DCP. I look forward to more groups as the summer continues! The morning held a couple of phone/Skype meetings and the afternoon included yet another dolphin trip.

Harkomal, a fifth-grader currently participating in our Online Classroom Connection program, submitted the following ten questions. I was able to pull in DCP researcher Justin Gregg, Ph.D to help answer some too!
1. Why do dolphins have 3 stomachs?
Some dolphin species have two stomachs, but most do indeed have three. The first of the three stomach acts as a storage unit – it holds the food until the other stomachs are ready for digestion to occur.

Wednesday was another lovely day in Bimini. At 1330 I was in the midst of a very engaging talk with Bimini Undersea’s guests. What a fantastic group; thanks for all of your questions. Afterwards it was out to search for the dolphins. We needed no patience today: only a few minutes out we came upon a group of at least 12 bottlenose dolphins. To our great pleasure the group (including one calf!) was crater feeding which meant a nice, long underwater encounter.  It was great!
As the afternoon continued, we continued to look for spotted dolphins.

My Tuesday afternoon began with a DCP Q&A session with guests at Sea Crest. Although I (sadly) do not speak French, it was a great conversation. Thank you to those guests who helped with the translation!
Soon, I was picked up by Bimini Undersea and before we knew it, we were at ‘3 Sisters.’ The time passed so quickly with such great dolphin conversation! After a lovely snorkel stop, we were headed in search of dolphins. Hopes were dwindling as the afternoon progressed, but as I’ve said, if the dolphins have taught me anything, they have taught me patience.

Monday’s dolphin trip departed Sea Crest Hotel & Marina early, giving guests the opportunity to have an extended snorkel stop at “The Bimini Road” (aka “Atlantis”) and enjoy lunch on the boat. Soon, we were headed in search of dolphins and we quickly came upon several bottlenose dolphins. They were scattered and on the move so we continued on our way in search of others. Luckily we were not disappointed…
First we came upon seven Atlantic spotted dolphins: four adults, including un-named #40 and 43, and 3 calves.

On Sunday, we departed Sea Crest Hotel & Marina at about 1530 with an enthusiastic group of French/Swiss guests. The crew, in particular, was thrilled with the calm seas after last week’s wind. The guests relaxed and chatted as we all kept our eyes open for dolphins. About halfway into the trip there they were – eight bottlenose dolphins. I quickly grabbed our digital SLR, hoping to capture at least a few dorsal fin photographs.

Monday’s dolphin trip left Sea Crest Hotel & Marina without me (as planned – don’t worry, they didn’t just leave me behind!). But, they had a great day, first with some older Atlantic spotted dolphins, then with some youngsters. Tuesday’s and Thursday’s dolphin trips were abbreviated because of the high east winds.

As we prepared for Sunday’s dolphin trip, we couldn’t help but wonder how much we were going to be able to search for dolphins. The weather forecast was not in our favor, yet, the conditions seemed to be improving. So, we headed out and were pleasantly surprised with the calm conditions! The sky was only partly cloudy and as the seas continued to calm, the guests saw splashing in the distance.