Sporadic dolphin trips phone links, and prepping for Nassau We've had plenty of down time the past few days as the dolphin week at Bimini Undersea was cancelled last minute. So we've been keeping ourselves busy with data, adding animals to the catalog, keeping things up to date, going over video, and trying to get some good still shots of some old friends we haven't seen in a while to add to the catalog.
Tag: older content
Bottlenose and Spotteds!
Today’s trip started off surprisingly with approximately 8 bottlenose dolphins. We were able to stay in the water with them for about 20 minutes. This is unusual for the bottlenose in this area, as they are generally uninterested in humans. We observed them crater feeding, a behavior that involves a dolphin echolocating on the sand and then burrowing its rostrum into the sand when it finds something of interest, usually a fish or an eel. One of the bottlenose had quite a bit of spotting on its belly.
In port today – with alternating muggy and breezy temps.
The boats are full with the tourists who arrived this morning. The first sighting of this group was at 10:30 am and the guides both saw the flukes and part of the peduncle protruding from the adult female! They did not have cameras and so were relying on memory as to the identity of the adult female. It *might* be #223, but we need to see her again with the calf to be sure.
More dolphins – socializing and playing
One large group split into several subgroups this afternoon. We probably saw about 30-40 individual dolphins today. They were in one large group spread between Subarune and Ebiiso and exhibited much splitting and joining in subgroup membership. One of the groups included about 15+ sub-adult males that were socializing. They were rubbing each other with their bodies and pectoral fins. There were erections and there were loud sounds – squawks and pops mostly.
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Two new calves accounted for after typhoon #8!
A last minute afternoon boat trip with me and one other researcher It was a great day with 23 minutes of video recorded. But, even better was the fact that we saw both #094 and #310 and their new calves! If you remember, these two calves were born in the last day or two of June, just before Typhoon #8 sent us really high seas. Both calves looked healthy and a bit bigger. It felt like I'd been holding my breath waiting to hear if they were okay.
Remained in port today, again
The sea was covered in white caps and the wind up. The day in port varied between strong winds and nothing but muggy hot air. We had a brief downpour this morning but the cooler air did not last long. I also checked out a few minshuku and captains and found that several tourists had left yesterday and so there was no space for me on a boat. I did not even see dolphins from the port on my morning walk.
On the water, and in it, again today.On the water, and in it, again today.
The dolphins were mostly resting – it seems 'recovering' from the rough seas. The wind had increased and so we spent most of our trip between Shojine and Ebiiso. We had two sightings of dolphins today but only observed individuals from the second group under water. And, twice I was quite surprised when all of a sudden there was a dolphin within one meter on my left or right! That is how bad the visibility was.