Kathleen, Manon, and John conducted an AM data collection session.
The smooth, glassy calm water below cryptically hides the schools of fish fluttering away from dolphins.
Our morning was productive with great underwater vis! You can see Kami grabbing seagrass from the root (below left) and Sandy and Kami playing the mouth game (below right).
Their travel snafu fixed, the CSU RAMS abroad group arrived in time for a filling, yummy lunch. Then, after changing in to shorts and applying sunblock, we went to Bailey’s Key to learn about the key and meet the dolphins and their trainers. We got to meet Elli and her two kids, Gizmo and Lightning. You can see us in the feature photo meeting Giz (left) and Elli (right). Lightning flashed by us a few times but mostly played with seagrass and seaweed ~15-20 m away.
After spending an hour plus at Bailey’s Key, we rode the water taxi back to the main part of AKR to find the classroom for our welcome orientation followed by the fish ID talk and then dinner. It’s been a long day, and we cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Riley H. – I found it really cool that we got to see the dolphins so close up and that we got to feed them and touch them and watch them do behaviors.
Riley B. – I really enjoyed learning all the different hand signals for the fish when diving or snorkeling and the fish IDs during the lecture tonight.
Kathryn – I was amazed by how many behaviors the dolphins could perform.
Rebecca – I thought it was interesting how each dolphin knew which trainer to listen to.
Aubrie – During the fish ID lecture I thought it was very cool that we got to hear from the lecturer and some experienced divers from their experiences all over the world.
Katie – I found it quite incredible that the dolphins could identify the different hand signals from the trainers so quickly and accurately.
Braydon – I didn’t expect to be able to interact with the dolphins physically on the first day – that was sort of shocking to rub the dolphins, and it was incredible.
Rafaela – It’s really incredible how many activities are facilitated for our learning and our help with research.
Quincy – Seeing how fast the baby dolphins learn the behaviors from the mother at a young age was fascinating.
John – Good day to fly a drone.
Manon – Welcome back CSU! I’m glad you made it just in time to meet the dolphins.
Shane – Great to be back on Roatan. Highly impressed by the students’ resilience in the face of the travel issues and their exuberance for the work today.
Cheers
CSU Rams Abroad – final field course name to be confirmed tomorrow.