It’s 7:45 a.m. Monday morning, our first day to be in the boat and on the water searching for dolphins. We are all excited to venture out and learn what we have to do to help Juan and his assistant, Victoria. We leave at 8 a.m. sharp.
The boat is a heavy, inflatable with a motor. We all sit on the edges and grab the rope secured around the edge so we don’t fall in the water. Or, there is a metal handle at the skipper’s stand one can grab if sitting near it and, other thin ropes secured in the center of the boat to grab and wrap around your wrist. No one in Europe, from what I’m told, wears life jackets. I’m guessing people don’t drown much in this part of the world. Only in America!
Juan starts the motor and we speed into the Gulf of Ambrasia (English name), in Greek, pronounced AmbrakeKOS. We travel approximately 40 mph (don’t know nautical speed)! to a destination Juan sets for. Each of us is assigned a quadrant of the boat to watch for dolphins. When we spot one, we have to shout its location to Juan….the bow being twelve o’clock and the back 6 o’clock. For example, when we see a dolphin or dolphins at 1 o’clock, we shout 1 o’clock at 50 meters or 100 meters, and tell him if you saw one dolphin, two or more.
He then immediately speeds to the location and slows the boat to wait for them to surface. Since the dolphins swim very fast, they can be in a totally different location by the time the boat nears the last sighting. When they do surface, Juan trolls the boat, grabs his super fast camera and starts shooting pictures. After the dolphins disappear and Juan has finished snapping pictures, he then grabs his tape recorder and records the time and location of this group of dolphins. Victoria, his assistant, then writes down behavior information she has observed.
We do this over and over for about three hours and are not allowed to take pictures during this disciplined research. That time will come on Thursday after the research is finished for the day.
It is amazing that Juan doesn’t wear sunglasses and can spot a dolphin in the distance without any trouble. His acute eyesight must have adapted, similar to the Bedouin in the Sahara dessert. We, on the other hand, have to wear sunglasses to filter the glare on the water and be able to distinguish the waves from the dolphins.
It is 11 a.m. and we speed back to shore for a drink at the cafe and then some lunch at our field base home. We have a few hours to chill out before we start the really tedious part of the research.
Day 1, Afternoon Research: Identifying the Dolphins
At 3 p.m., we all gathered in the computer room that has two table top computers. Elaine and Richard are the more experienced ones, so have one computer. The other three of us sit with Victoria to view the pictures Juan has taken that day, perhaps fifty or more.
The pictures are mostly of the dorsal fins of each dolphin since this is what surfaces most of the time. Each dolphin has its own size and shape of dorsal fin, similar to human noses…each is different. They also have different markings on them due to activity, such as notches on the fins and other skin differences.
Using Photo Shop, the pictures of these dorsal fins are cataloged. One by one, each picture is put up on the screen and we have to match the fin pictures, two side by side, to the same dolphin. Then, a file is made for each dolphin. It is tedious work, but very interesting to see that each dolphin has it’s own identity. We finish the day’s work around 5 or 6 p.m, depending how many pictures are taken that day.
After we finish, we have a few hours before dinner that usually takes place between 8 and 8:30 p.m. Everyone takes a turn to cook for the others and is a wonderful time to socialize and share differences and commonalities of our countries.
Tomorrow, we’re out to sea again!
( Pictures will come a little later when they are transferred to the computer. I don’t have much time to write between morning and afternoon research nor time to load pictures)
Arley Harriman