Internships account: Week 1: (January 28th – February 3, 2008)
January 28th – February 3, 2008
Day 1: Completed my first survey with Bruno, Andrea and Francesca at the Aranci Bay. We were in luck, the weather was beautiful (for winter, 20ºC and no wind) and we spotted seven dolphins after about 5 min on the opposite side of a marine fin fish farm then we tied up on. They were searching for food and we followed them though their countless circling searching behavior. When they found fish we knew it, speed increased and we sometimes witnessed jumps, fast surface, and flukes up. We studied them for many hours to and from the fish farm and open water. Several times they partnered up two, two, and three, and once two and five. After many hours they two by two by three headed away from the Fish Farm, back from whence they came, and we headed in for a much-needed lunch.
Day 2: Today we were not so lucky, upon reaching the Fish Farm we stayed for many hours without a dolphin in sight. Soon we called it a day after gathering several hours of environmental data, including accurate temperature, mV, pH, and Secchi disk readings. After returning to the Institute Francesca and I were taught the intricacies of transferring field data to notebooks for later transfer to the computer database.
Day 3: This day we were grounded from going out because of the wind. When it is too windy (Douglas 4 or more) we do not go out to study the dolphins because the waves decrease our observation quality. So today the four of us continued data transcription of the previous days as well as past years into the notebooks and database. Also, we took the opportunity to fix-up the Spartian for future surveys.
Day 4: The weather cleared up enough for us to get to the fish farm and find the dolphins (three) already at work feeding amongst the cages. We were able to gather about 2 to 3 hours worth of data before increasing wind drove us back to the harbor, and more data transcription.
Day 5: Again the wind prevented us from heading out and so we transcribed data and worked on the Spartana. One thing I learned this week is that I did not pack enough warm cloths and blankets, so I layered, layered, layered. Francesca and myself continued to increase our knowledge of current research on Bottlenosed Dolphins from research papers, and I continued to try and understand Italian. Day 6: Francesca left today at midmorning after completing her week of study at the BDRI, and we gained another intern, Stephanie who is from Florida and will be here for three months. We will be heading out tomorrow on a Fish Farm boat, if weather permits. Day 7: Today Bruno, Stephanie, Andrea and myself cleaned the BDRI then went to the harbor to talk to the fishermen and work on the Spartana. Then the rest of the day was for personal projects and some data transcription.
