Another Great Dolphin Day!

Jpeg and her calf

Old friends
Our first group encountered today was Jpeg and her less than year old calf. Jpeg is one of the dolphin “leaders” near Key West. When in groups, she usually leads group travel.  She is one of the few individuals that can be found associating with individuals from two of our main communities of dolphins. Communities are individuals that associate with one another more often than others. And they are usually divided geographically. There is not always any identifiable barrier between them. And they do sometimes overlap a bit. In the case of the dolphins near Key West, there are multiple communities. All seem to have some “barriers” between them. These are either extreme shallows that cannot be crossed or large deep channels. 

Because Jpeg “runs” between multiple communities, this means that she may be more knowledgeable about how to move between these areas and how to use these areas. This could be an advantage to those that follow her, if she has more knowledge or experience.

Great Weather

Storm off Key West, Florida

So far we have had fantastic weather this field season, breaking our record for the most days straight on the water this week. Usually in the summer we have at the very least thunderstorm build up each day over the island chain, forcing us off the water by noon, where we wait it out and then run back on the water later in the day. Thunderstorms have developed (and even waterspouts), but not near where we have been collecting data. Winds are expected to drop down to 5 knots tomorrow, which means smooth seas and very easy sighting conditions. Most dolphin researchers do not collect data if the wind is beyond 15knots. This is because the size of the waves gets to a point where you can no longer be certain you have not missed seeing a dorsal fin behind a wave, biasing your sighting data.

Area of disturbance
Each day we survey an area where vessel traffic is heavy and unpredictable in direction of movement. We survey this area prior to the arrival of these vessels (early morning) and then at the height of this traffic in the middle of the day. Today during the height of traffic we sighted a group of dolphins just outside of the area. The dolphins decided to move into the traffic area. Interestingly, they immediately began to porpoise, (fast movement where animals actually break free of the surface of the water when they surface to breath) cutting quickly across the corner of the high traffic area, only slowing once they made it to another shallow area on the northern border of this area. There may be many possible reasons for this behavior. But we cannot help speculate if it may have been in response to the need to avoid this traffic.

Dolphins porpoising