Tag: older content

The DCP summer interns (Tori, Kaiya & Patrick) have been with Kathleen in the Florida office since mid-May learning about data analyses (video processing, confirming dolphin IDs, event sampling for behaviors and more). They depart at the end of June for Bimini to help Kel collect data on the Atlantic spotted and bottlenose dolphins around Bimini, The Bahamas. But, before they cross the Gulf Stream for clear blue waters, they needed to learn how to handle the MVA and gain some tips on collecting video and still photos underwater. You can see they all did well …

Garion woke up this morning and had a hearty breakfast of bagels and leftover chicken burrito (Yum!). He and Mathew then went for a bike ride and Garion showed Mathew a bit of the island based off what he could remember from his tour with Nicole. They then went grocery shopping and biked home.

On Monday, DCP welcomed its first-ever Volunteer Field Experience participants, Garion and Mathew! We are very excited to offer this opportunity this year and are eager to make the most of the volunteers’ 12 days on Bimini. For their first blog post, Garion and Mathew wrote about their travels to Bimini. Tune in over the next 2 weeks to hear about the rest of their experiences! 
Garion:
I woke up at 3 AM on Monday to begin my journey from my home in Stuart, Florida to Bimini, The Bahamas.

Wow, did that Sacred Heart University program fly by! On Tuesday, we had some group class time and visited the Bimini Museum. We broke into teams and had an information “scavenger hunt,” searching for the answers to questions that DCP provided. We let our friendly competitive streaks come out before heading back for lunch and our dolphin trip! 
The weather conditions continued to be challenging, Still, we were able to stop at “The Bimini Road” (aka “Atlantis” or “Road to Atlantis”).

On Monday we woke up early, nervous and excited about meeting the sharks – but soon after we left the dock, we saw a huge storm coming ahead. We were getting more nervous: sharks and lightning! We turned back toward home, stopping briefly to snorkel at “Shell Beach.” We saw an eagle ray, a blue tang, a barracuda, lots of parrotfish and lots of little transparent, white jellyfish. Only about 15 minutes after we got in the water, Captain Al called us back to the boat. The storm was moving too fast. We made it back to the dock….nearly.

On Sunday, we were excited to see the sun and feel the warm rays.  We headed to the Dolphin House and meet with a local Bimini man Ashley Saunders.  We were impressed that he began working on the Dolphin house in 1993, and his family had been on Bimini for over 200 years.  The house was all handmade and unique, made out of shells, pottery, seaglass.  He used recycled materials and salvaged materials that he cleans up from the beaches.

On Saturday, we woke up to some pretty hefty rain and we weren’t optimistic that it could possibly clear up. But, we toughed it out and headed to the beach for our beach clean-up, even with darker skies threatening. The rain was light at the beginning and we were curious about the little moving things over the rocks – tiny (tiny!) snails and baby hermit crabs! We were expecting the beach to be quite clean – you imagine The Bahamas and you picture perfect, clean, white-sand beaches. Not the case. There were so many wrappers and disposable straws.

Hi everyone! I’m thrilled to have Nicole back on Bimini and we’ve been busy the last few days prepping for our field course with Sacred Heart University. The group arrived on Friday 2 June and will be here until Thursday 8 June.

Spaces available on a last minute July 2017 Bimini Ecotour/Research Experience.

The latest issue of The Dolphin Gazette – V21no2 – is ready for you!