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Last day at Sea for Trip #3 It is easy to tell the difference between sharks and dolphins – the former don't come to the surface to breathe! Actually, the nurse shark was not interested in us. A few of us were snorkeling and checking out the seagrass bottom … which was quite different from the white sand of our previous anchorage. Here, there were lots of conch and helmet shells as well as sand dollars and seabiscuits. A nice change from the stark landscape of the northern area of our study site.

We could not have asked for better weather … or more dolphins. The morning was rather slow where dolphin sightings were concerned. Only two bottlenose dolphins seen. And we saw them again, about 30 minutes after the first observation, when we hauled anchor to search from a moving boat. It seemed like a mother/calf pair with the larger dolphin having a distinctive scar on the dorsal side of the peduncle (tail stock). It was a healed shark bit. This dolphin also had lost the left pectoral fin and half of the right one. But she swam well.

39 spotted dolphins rough-housing (sort of) We began the day with no dolphins but had a sighting of a seemingly large group (announced to us by another research boat about 3.5 miles north of us) slowly moving to the SW. We hopped into the dinghy to see for ourselves. We radioed to the other boat asking permission to approach within a half mile. There are only a few boats out here now observing the dolphins but it is etiquette to remain outside a half mile unless permission is granted. All was okay.

… with dolphins and weather. What was most special to me on this day was that we saw and swam with #39 (Doubledot) and #78 (Hook). I first met these two dolphins in the early 1990's and saw them with their first calves a couple of years ago. It was such a pleasure to see them again … with their juveniles. We actually had our longest encounter of this trip (so far) with these two mother/calf pairs: 37 minutes! And 25 minutes of video recorded of their interactions.

Early morning departure We all had a good snorkel while the main boat took on fuel. And, by 10:30 am we resumed our course north. Within an hour we had a few bottlenose dolphins bowriding. What a sight to see! Like a welcoming party. And soon after we had a few spotted dolphins that allowed… Continue reading Dolphins everywhere

Day 1 of Trip #3 Final details are attended to in preparation of passenger arrival. The boat is ready. We pulled out and assembled the last pieces of our research gear. I put the array together mostly. It was in storage in a pelican case in the hold while we were in Japan and the USA. I left the o-rings out and the camera out. I want to teach the coming volunteer researchers (i.e., passengers) how my array is assembled and used.

More time to Chat and brainstorm ideas Last night, I chatted with Xenia about her data collection and we also discussed the protocol. One of the things we will look for, when Xenia visit DCP's office, is any matches between the photos for identification used around Bimini and those we have gathered north of Grand Bahama Island (GBI). If there are matches, this information will give us an idea about the range and distribution of spotted dolphins in the Bahamas.

Meeting with Xenia in Bimini Today began early with our flight to Florida. John stayed in Miami with Lynne, one of our captains aboard the Hanky Panky. I took a Chalk's flight to Bimini from Miami: Chalk's uses seaplanes. This was my first flight on a seaplane. It was much smoother a take-off than a regular flight … but of course, there were no swells or chop on the sea. It was an odd feeling to see the waves splash up and over the plane windows as we took off, and later as we landed.

third trip north of GBI But first, Kathleen will visit with Xenia and help for a day or two with her data collection. Then, on 11 August, trip number 3 for Kathleen's dolphin communication research begins. Since we will not have email or internet access while at sea, all our reports will be posted on 18 August. But there will be much to read so stay tuned to this site. Cheers for now.

Report # 13 The weather was not pleasant at the beginning of the week since we had much rain and wind speeds up to 25 knots from the southwest (waves 5-7 feet). Due to this, the trip on Monday was cancelled. A total of six afternoon survey trips were conducted this week.