Tag: older content

Today we cleaned, packed and met the sea lions at DE … met the sea lions! There are 5 females and 1 male sea lions at Dolphin Encounters. They are practicing for meet & greets with guests and the trainers used us for additional practice. We did not mind at all!

Mats and his team also got to participate in a dolphin swim with Soca, Nina and Missy. They were kissed by dolphins and pinnipeds today! Is there any better way to end a successful field season?!

Tonight is packing for airplane travel and our respective returns home.

The morning was filled with data collection, the afternoon with sightseeing. Today was our last day for data collection. I promised John to assist him with a few interviews on camera and Mats, Christer, Josefin and Sofia went to see a bit of Nassau for a couple of hours in the afternoon. They very much enjoyed the Pirate Museum!

We had an exceptionally successful winter session for data collection here at Dolphin Encounters. We used the MVA, MOSART and Pec Pacs, and the new ELVIS system.

I used the MVA and Christer had a couple with MOSART Another day, another dollar, or in this case, 'another data'! We were again able to collect much data and use the MOSART tag in concert with the MVA. Nina and Jake were willing participants and wore the pack well. Jake even kept the pack on throughout the ELVIS session in which he was involved.

It was neat to watch that while Nina wore the pec pac with the tag, her son, Cacique would check her out with echolocation and direct, perpendicular approaches.

The seas were rough and the winds up again, but the dolphins engaging. Today was an exceptionally good day, but also a tiring one. We had to be finished by 4:45 pm for a 5 pm departure. There was a staff event for the DE team tonight. Still, I was able to get 3 sessions in today and Mats et al got 4 sessions in with Elvis. The first two sessions for me had first Nina and then Jake wearing the pec pac with MOSART tag, too.

Several neat behaviors were documented today. The morning was again clear and peaceful. Our taxi ride was a bit slower than expected. And, when we arrived to the ferry terminal we found that there was no guest boat to DE, but a separate boat came out for us and we were able to get to the dolphins by 9 am! We were very greatful since our sessions were simply awesome!

I had a 30 min session with Princess, Abaco, Chippy & her calf and saw so many neat behaviors. Abaco was barrel rolling and whistling.

We collected MVA, MOSART and ELVIS data! The day began a bit later that yesterday … a bit of a morning rest was called for for all of us. Then, I was able to get MVA data from two back-to-back sessions. I observed the three adult males for 30 min and then Nina, Cacique, Soca and Aunty V for the second session of 25 min. All before the first set of guests … it was absolutely CLEAR underwater visbility which made for great videos.

The wind died down, and a morning shower rinsed all, briefly. We were up and on the move before 6 am today to be able to catch the staff ferry to Dolphin Encounters. Mats and his team buried the Elvis mat of hydrophones while I prepped the array and Christer prepared the MOSART tag. Our adrenaline was enough caffeine for us this morning … especially since the weather cooperated.

Both of my sessions today were with the three adult males: Jake, Fatman, McGyver. And, for the first session, Jake and McGyver were captivated by Princess.