Water-testing the MVA3 Robin's bag did not arrive, so I was the one to jump in with the empty MVA3 housing. The MVA3 is the third version of the mobile video/acoustic array that we finished building on Sunday afternoon. John help and did most of the fabrication for the MVA3. We will post pictures at some point before the end of October.
Well, this housing is mechanical and one of the DAT (echolocation click recorder) glands leaked. Not bad, just a trickle, but too much.
A shuttle ride, three flights & another shuttle ride to get to RIMS & AKR. Robin Paulos is one of my graduate students at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is studying the ontogeny of dolphin behavior and comparing the spotted and bottlenose dolphins that DCP has been studying. Why do I mention her here? Well, Robin is my field assistant for the next 6 weeks.
We both were exhausted after our long days of travel but full of excitement at the newly beginning program.
in Honduras, at the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences This weekend is spent packing gear and supplies for a 6 week field season to Roatan Island, 27 miles north of Honduras. We will be staying at Anthony's Key Resort studying the 16 bottlenose dolphins at the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences (RIMS). The dolphins range in age from less than one year to ~25 yrs old.
Less than an hour our, we came upon 4 dolphins, being joined shortly after by ten or so more, and everybody wanted to play. The group was extremely vocal, making some intense pulsed sounds and blowing bubbles at us, circle swimming and chasing each other and having a grand old time. We saw Swoosh, Split jaw, Underbite, Big C, Chop Fin, White Blotch, #17, #12, and whole bunch more (we still need to pour over that video).
Though a bit calmer today than the past few days, we still had a hard time finding dolphins. Came across some bottlenose that weren't too interested in us at all, then a mother-calf pair who stuck around the boat for a bit but really wanted nothing to do with the people.
Just as we were heading home, there they were, a big group of adults chasing a school of fish mercilessly. Dives and jumps and such, and very focused on the fish, not on us, not even on the boat.
An hour into the trip, thankfully, we were approached by two young calves riding the five foot swells and our bow wake. A bottlenose joined them briefly but then took off, and the moms came out to keep any eye on the little ones. Our first attempt in the water was not welcomed by moms, but after bribing them with bow rides, we were able to join all four of them for over a half an hour.
The moms appeared to be teaching the calves how to feed by echolocating on the sand and burrowing for the catch.
Another late night the other day. Had some in and out encounters and some strong currents, but on the final entry we were able to spend some quality time with Cleopatra (#41) and Juliette (#12). They hung out with us for twenty minutes or so, foraging and playing and just milling around. At one point they both went after one of the passenger's fins, which we got a kick out of. We reluctantly left them when we ran out of daylight.
After a few brief sightings and some frustration among the passengers, we finally encountered dolphins around 7:30. It was a mixed group, fairly large, with some rambunctious calves messing around. From the boat, we observed a lot of tail slapping and leaps. From underwater, we observed one juvenile repeatedly fluke slapping another juvenile, with a nonplayful implication. In fact, one of the group leaders was accidentally whacked by a rogue tail in the melee.
We wandered into deeper water with the dolphins and the group became interspecied and included over 15 animals.
Today's trip included a snorkel stop at Atlantis but before we even got there we found ourselves beside a large group of bottlenose that more or less ignored us. We maintained visual on them during the snorkel stop and caught up with what we believe was the same group after we were done with our snorkel but they still wanted nothing to do with us. We took the hint and moved on.
A half hour later we came across four more bottlenose dolphins who engaged in some fancy acrobatics.
Every new group of passengers is briefed on the dolphins and informed about how to swim with them before the start of each trip. The policies of no touch and no chasing are stressed, and passengers are always receptive to this. This group was no exception. The AM group consisted of a whole bunch of kids and their parents, along with two friends from back home, all equally eager to swim with dolphins.
After two hours of searching we caught some spotteds on our bow, 4 class 2 animals, one with a large scar down his side.
