Tag: older content

Our first week with Hunter College was so busy that there was no extra time to post field reports! I hope you’ll forgive this belated summary of the week:
On Sunday 12 August, week one of two began with ten Hunter College students, their instructors and two bonus guests photographing throughout the week for an upcoming National Geographic story on dolphin cognition. The dolphin success for the week ran the gamut, with bottlenose and spotted sightings, as well as mixed species groups.

Friday was Pam’s and Liana’s last day on Bimini. We started the day off with our second talk aboard the Coral Reef II, this time to a small group of middle-schoolers from Chicago. It was great to be back on the boat, especially with such a welcoming crowd. This time, Pam and Liana got to participate a little bit more in the talk, which was great experience for us. The kids were very well informed and were able to answer a lot of our interactive questions. It was a pleasure to give a talk to such a nice group.

Thursday, we (Liana and Pam) went to the Shark Lab (aka Bimini Biological Field Station) in the morning. We listened to a talk about the research they do, and were able to see the pens they keep out back which are full of rays, baby lemon sharks, and baby nurse sharks. We got to touch the sharks and even got to hold a Bimini Boa! It was very interesting to learn about other research projects that are going on around Bimini.

This morning the three of us did a beach clean up! This clean-up was sponsored by DCP Conservation Member Christine – thank you! We chose the area around the south point of North Bimini because it is known to be an area where a lot of trash ends up and is close to the ocean (but, what isn’t close to the sea in Bimini?!). We picked up lots of stuff, including lots of plastic and styrofoam, aluminum cans, and even a couple of shoes! In total, we collected 11 bags of trash and 3 bags of recycling.

Tuesday morning we began logging last week’s video for IDs. It was the first time Pam and Liana had a chance to review their first attempt at video data collection – they did a great job! Afterwards, we were all excited to get on the water again. As we left the dock, Pam and Liana with Bimini Undersea and Kel with Bimini Adventures, there were many clouds in the sky, but it cleared up as the day progressed.

On Monday, somewhat high winds threatened to keep us all on shore. As it turned out, Pam & Liana continued their “office” tasks while Kel headed out with Bimini Adventures. We knew the choppy seas might keep us close to shore, but we remained optimistic. Not too long into the trip we suddenly saw a group of 5 bottlenose dolphins, including at least one youngster. Although we saw the group very clearly and quite close to the boat, it was a short-lived sighting as we could not keep our eyes on the dolphins as they surfed the swells.

Saturday’s stormy weather kept us working indoors. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been updating DCP’s Facebook pages – Dolphin Communication Project’s main page as well as pages for each of the dolphins. We hope everyone enjoys these updates!
On Sunday, as we set out with Bimini Adventures, the wind was a bit stronger than usual, but finally the sun we had been missing the last few days had emerged. In the distance were some clouds, but no storm systems that looked threatening as in the past few days.

Pam and Liana called Bimini Undersea religiously on Friday to check for updates on the planned trip. There had been storms off and on all morning, and so we weren’t sure whether the weather would let up for a trip to go out. Luckily, things cleared up enough for us to set off. It was a bit breezier than usual, but sunny. Clouds loomed in the distance, but were far enough away to pose little threat. About twenty minutes into our trip, we spotted a dolphin jumping very high in the distance, putting on quite the show.

Thursday was the first day that Pam and Liana were separated to go on different boat trips. Pam went with Bimini Undersea, while Liana went with Bimini Adventures. Separating like this allows us to have the best chance of seeing a large amount of dolphins!

Pam had a great day with Bimini Undersea. The boat left under a mostly cloudy but beautiful sky. A little bit less than an hour into our travels, we spotted a group of four bottlenose dolphins. We observed them about ten minutes from the boat, because they were on the move.