From Sun and Storms to New Friends: Reflections on Our 6th Field Research Adventure in the Bahamas

With the completion of our sixth trip, the reality of the 2024 field season’s end has hit us all at the Wild Dolphin Project. Mother Nature made sure that we closed the season with a bang, giving us some rough seas, strong winds, and our fair share of squalls. Despite these challenges, we had an incredible time exploring both the Little Bahama Bank (LBB) and Great Bahama Bank (GBB) banks. Our days were filled with spontaneous karaoke sessions, nightly dolphin presentations or encounter videos and even an underwater robotics presentation! We also gained a global environmental perspective from our international guests, but admittedly our attempts at mimicking Australian, Irish, and British accents remain laughably terrible. 

Before we even reached the Bahamas, we were greeted by a group of offshore bottlenose dolphins. These guys are massive! While the common bottlenose dolphins on the sandbanks are already noticeably larger than our spotted dolphins, offshore bottlenose are nearly twice their size! They’re easily identifiable by their light gray or white saddle marks behind their dorsal fins.

Offshore bottlenose bowriding on our crossing to the Bahamas (Photo by Hayley Knapp)

Early Morning Encounter

As we’ve done all summer, we began our journey on Little Bahama Bank (LBB). On the very first day, just as we settled into our 7 am watch with our morning coffee and tea, we heard the unmistakable sound of blowhole breaths off the starboard side. There was a large group of spotted dolphins milling around the boat while we were at anchor! Our chef, Liam, was quick to dive in for a closer look, while the rest of us scrambled to get geared up between bites of granola bars. This extraordinary encounter lasted nearly an hour and a half, and even Captain Dave and First Mate Drew managed to join in the fun.

Group of spotteds (Photo by Allison Sanchez)                               Venti (Photo by Bria Morganroth)

New and Old Faces

We saw so many familiar rostrums– like Flying A, Navel, Poindexter, Naia, Nera, Flotsam, Zest, and Venti– and some new faces. Throughout the summer, we’ve been diligently tracking our unnamed dolphins, and that list grew even more this trip. Although there are still plenty of dolphins left to try to match and identify, we were finally able to name most of our unnamed friends, making it much easier to keep track of them.

That first encounter was extraordinary. There was so much pec rubbing, laying and rubbing in the sand, and some juvenile play/aggression. Flotsam even played with the anchor line and some of the juveniles chased a barracuda. After that long encounter, we enjoyed two more LBB encounters before we headed down to Bimini. 

U24 is still unnamed until the databases can be thoroughly checked (Photo by Allison Sanchez)

Calf Aerials Despite Mother Nature

The wind and waves picked up substantially on GBB due to Tropical Storm Debby forming in the Gulf of Mexico, far away but still felt. That did not seem to deter the dolphins one bit! They appeared to revel in these conditions, surfing the waves and jumping in the air, entertaining everyone. The sight of a calf performing an aerial jump always earns a perfect 10/10 in our book. Although our GBB encounters were generally brief, we had a long, playful encounter with several dolphins including Nautica, Pocket, Muggle, Sycamore, and Oreo. Muggle and Pocket were whistling the entire time, clearly spilling all the tea about their friends. 

Spotted dolphin calf jumping (Photo by Hayley Knapp)

Enchanting Ending

On one of our last days, a group of 26 dolphins approached our boat. We managed to get in with them, but they were moving too quickly for us humans to keep up. We tried a second time to get as many ID photos as we could, but when we got out, Captain Dave informed us there were 40 individuals traveling past us! Despite our efforts, we couldn’t capture everyone, but we hope some of the dolphins we haven’t yet encountered this summer were among that group.

Muggle and Oreo playing with sargassum (Photo by Allison Sanchez)

Thank you to everyone who joined us on this trip, you truly made it extra special! We hope you join us on the Stenella again in the future. With only one more trip left this summer, we sure will miss our finned Bahamian friends until next field season!

 Hayley Knapp and Allison Sanchez