Crossing Into Adventure
Hey everyone! I know it has been a while since you’ve heard from us here at the Wild Dolphin Project, but we are back from trip 4 with lots of stories to tell you. So, grab some popcorn and tea or coffee and settle in for the tale of our Bahamian adventures.
We began our adventure crossing to Little Bahama Bank (LBB) with Captain Dave at the helm. Mother nature blessed us with a fairly calm crossing, which I am sure all of our passengers greatly appreciated. After checking into customs, we let people explore West End before heading out to begin our dolphin surveys. Those adorable creatures made us patiently wait a day before paying us a visit. As you know, we have only recently returned to survey LBB after a few years away, so our identification binders for this bank are a little outdated. This is making it challenging to identify the large group of juveniles we keep encountering. It’s possible they are newer individuals born while we were away or they may be old faces with lots of new spots. As Dr. Herzing always says, “Let the detective work begin!”
Unidentified juvenile with Flotsam. (Photo by Allison Sanchez)
Once again, we had a “fintastic” encounter with the LBB juveniles and had another shark come through (minding its own business of course). While none of the spotted dolphins teased or taunted this shark, they did chase it off. We also had a few beautiful snorkel excursions at the beloved Sugar Wreck and Memory Rock. The colors in the water are astounding at both locations and we are so fortunate to do fieldwork in this
environment. 
Memory Rock. (Photo by Hayley Knapp)
Acrobatics and Play at GBB
After a few days on LBB, we crossed to Great Bahama Bank (GBB) and had even more fun with our finned friends. We had at least one encounter every day on GBB and saw almost every type of behavior. The only behavior we didn’t have a chance to observe was interspecies aggression, but we saw plenty of mating, courtship, babysitting, nursing, parenting, playing, and juvenile tussling! We had a very long and peaceful encounter with two of our fused males: Toad and Baelish. We observed them while they rested and played with sargassum. Baelish, an old male, did some impressive aerials in front of the boat before the two took off.
Baelish leaping in front of Stenella (Photo by Hayley Knapp)
We were also blessed to see several new calves, which means lots of new names are coming soon. We had several mom-calf encounters, one of which included everyone’s favorite little speckled, Nautica! Nautica, ever curious, hogged the cameras and tried to get some of the little calves in trouble with their mothers. As a result, we watched Nautica get tail slapped at least 5 times. One day, maybe, she will learn when it’s time to play and time to chill out per dolphin rules. But, until then, we enjoy encounters with her as they are always full of great behavior and vocalizations.
New Identifying Scars & Wounds
Several of our encounters had dolphins with new or fresh wounds. While heartbreaking, we do wonder what our dolphins have been getting themselves into. Sidewalk, mom of Sidon, had a gaping wound on her left peduncle, while Baelish had a wound on his chest area between the pectoral fins. Most surprising of all, however, was Briny. Briny is Burgundy’s most recent male calf and he has been through the ringer. His dorsal fin is almost completely gone and he has a massive scar on his right flank. Despite all his injuries, he appears to be thriving and living his best life with other youngsters like Suey’s new female calf, Tyler’s new female calf, Nemo (Nereide’s male calf from last summer), and Tristan’s new calf.
Sidewalk (with wound) and her calf Sidon (with new scar). (Photo by Allison Sanchez)
Briny, Burgundy’s male calf (Photo by Allison Sanchez)
Trip 4 was a wonderful trip and our passengers made it extra special, especially since we celebrated Captain Dave’s birthday on board. Thank you to everyone who came out with us and we can’t wait to see you again.
Till next time!
Hayley Knapp