Dolphins move in crazy places
When following dolphins, each of our pilots eventually gets labeled as a hazard driver for some type of hard to navigate space. This can be really shallow water (Florida Keys dolphins love to travel in waters less than a meter in depth, sometimes in about 1/3 of a meter), in channels with lots of vessel traffic or in mooring fields with many sail boats and mooring buoys.
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| Dolphins move through shallow waters in the Florida Keys sometimes less than 1/2m in depth |
Today we got the chance to deal with all three as Ingrid our pilot worked to keep us in sight of the dolphins and hazard free. The group of dolphins we found today was located first in a busy channel. They then moved across an area so shallow that we could not cross behind them. To keep up, we had to back track, move around a shallow sea grass bed, and then meet up with the dolphins later on the other side. The dolphins then moved into a mooring area, where not only did we have to locate them between boats but avoid running into the boats as the wind worked hard to push us in other directions. We were successful however and were able to collect the data we needed on this group.
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| Dolphin moving through mooring area in the Florida Keys |
Madbob spotted again
An update on Madbob. We have learned since first spotting Madbob this season that the lesions on her skin are not lobomycosis. Lobomycosis is a fungal infection found only in humans and in bottlenose dolphins. And it can be fatal. We are still working to learn what the lesions are the result of.
We sighted Madbob again today and she appears to be healthy otherwise, traveling, feeding and socializing with other group members.
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