And a day off doesn’t get much better than this… Following Kathleen’s advice, Darcie and I make sure to take a complete day off from dolphins every so often—really, truly a day off. This can be hard to do, but it means no dolphin related emailing, no video logs, no peaking at the catalog—not even a field report (so we are writing this on the 18th!). Well, today was that day for us.
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Can you hear me now?
Two boat trips, but constant rain means pea-soup ocean – not much to see out there IMAGE: Can you find the dolphins in this picture?
Two boat trips again today (must be some kind of record), but the weather has been unlucky. Constant rain for almost 48 hours means that lots of silt and debris is being churned up along the shore line thanks to the water running off the mountain.
Today, the rain actually HURT!
Choppy and nasty – our boat trip is cut shortIMAGE: My housemate Kogi demonstrating a variation on the traditional Japanese ‘sashimi’ style of eating squid
After two days of hugely successful boat trips, I should have known that my luck was about to run out. I woke up to serious rain this morning – a constant downpour. I assumed that there was no way anyone would be going out in this weather. But we still managed to find a trip! The real diehards were out today.
Finally, the water is flat!
Bottlenose and spotteds togetherToday, our eighth boat trip of the 2005 season, was pretty productive. With a seriously full boat (3 crew, 2 researchers and 13 guests), we came upon a group of 10 bottlenose at 1704. We observed them from the boat for about 10 minutes before venturing further into the dolphin grounds in search of spotteds. We found this group, with several bottlenose, at 1837, just as passengers were giving up hope for the day.
Tosaka playground!
Rubbing, rubbing and more rubbing. We had two trips again today! That is 4 trips in 2 days – madness. #057 9 (Shimibaa) and her juvenile came around for an inspection on the first trip. The juvenile was very excited to see us, and hung around after mom left the scene. But mom came back in a hurry and disciplined the juvenile for spending too much time with us, and not sticking by her side where she belongs.
Fire In The Hole!
When will things really flatten out?First thing’s first: We were able to fix the controls on the MVA reasonably easily this morning. A major source of stress relieved, so we are very happy.
Next, the boat was filled with happy passengers, including a few extra guests, as the seas had flattened somewhat, although they are still rougher than we like. We began the trip with a snorkel stop at Atlantis and listened to Audley’s (member of Bimini Undersea’s crew) lovely briefing on the history behind the sight.
A super lucky Monday the 13th!
Dolphins-a-poppin IMAGE: A picture of my new upside-down dolphin friend…
Two boat trips today! My gosh – what a way to make up for a slow couple of days. Our first trip was a lot like boot camp. We were on a boat with no seats, so getting in and out felt a lot like army training. And for some reason, as soon as we spotted dolphins, there was a mad rush to get in the water.
Slightly calmer seas with dolphins this time!
Bottlenose first, spotteds second, bottlenose third Things are ever so slightly calmer today, but still rougher than suggested by weather reports. At least today our mildly seasick passengers were able to get a glimpse of both bottlenose and spotted dolphins. We sighted a group of at least 12 bottlenose dolphins right before 1700, and the group scattered a bit, but stayed in view for about 40 minutes. Once we lost sight of this group, we went in search of spotteds and found them (or they found us) just before 1800.
Out of control data processing!
Another day inside, but some serious data analysis today! IMAGE An enchanting photograph depicting the glory of data processing
Yet another day without a boat trip – it is becoming a bad habit at this point. So I took it upon myself to do some serious data processing. There is a side to dolphin research that is far from glamorous. In fact, it is so distinctly unglamorous as to make you think that studying dolphins is tedious.
Another rocky boat trip
A nice group of passengers, but no dolphins. So, as we were saying yesterday, organized storms, such as a tropical storm or hurricane, can wreak havoc on an area for days after they pass. But, since it was technically safe to go out into the dolphin grounds today, that is what we did. However, with very frequent white caps, and reasonable swells, finding dolphins proved to be too big of a challenge.