Tag: older content

Our new webpage is live: Kids Science Activities. Found under the Education tab, this page is your source for free, downloadable, STEAM activities. Created with elementary students in mind, activities can be adjusted for younger or older students.

New to DCP? Curious about who we are and what we do? Be like this bottlenose dolphin and backflip yourself to our first Zoom meeting for an introduction and short Q&A session.

Ideal for 13+, but all ages welcome.

15 minutes presentation + 15 minutes for Q&A

Thursday, April 2, 11:00 a.m.

You may wonder why you are seeing a blog post about a giant reef fish and what it has to do with dolphins.  Quite simply, the answer is “conservation”!  With all of our oceans in trouble, and the extinction of animal species hardly making news anymore, it becomes important for each one of us to help, or consider why we have not helped.  Whether it’s a common bottlenose dolphin or an endangered Goliath Grouper, we all have an obligation to tread lightly on our blue planet’s other inhabitants and treat them with care. 

In this special podcast episode celebrating 20 years of the Dolphin Communication Project, Laura and Justin interview Kelly Melillo-Sweeting, Bimini Research Manager and all-around awesome scientist. Kel explains the findings form her recently published article on laterality in bottlenose dolphins – that is, a preference that dolphins seem to have for the right side of their bodies when hunting for prey in the sand.

Our last day began bright and sunny! We had a good session with the dolphins though they were more into their own thing today. There was much less surface activity but there was some neat underwater action. Elli spent quite a bit of time playing with a small bit of seaweed – mouthing it and hiding it from other dolphins.

We woke to a calmed sea and a quiet morning. The early morning data collection session included lots of surface activity – tail slaps and rolling socializing by several dolphins.

Our day began with a show from both the sun and the moon! And that meant no rain! And, the underwater visibility was superb! All these factors, plus socializing dolphins, led to a 50-minute early morning data collection session! There were lots of tail slaps (regular and belly up positions!) and several fast swims and chases observed at the surface. Champ was hanging out with French except when he and Lenca zoomed in front of the MVA! Ronnie and Stan were slow swimming and socializing for the last 10-15 minutes of the session.