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March 16, 2008

Dolphin Internships - Summary of the week 3rd - 9th March (By Stefanie)

March 3, Monday

 

BDRI researchers have been collecting acoustical data for the past three years. Now, it is time to analyze the whistles that have been recorded. For this step of bioacoustics, we began going through all the days with whistles and entering the data into a new notebook. The course notebooks are used as references for the sighting information.

 

March 4, Tuesday

 

This morning we went to sea on a fishery boat. Unfortunately, the weather was not ideal for data collection. We did have a sighting early on, a brief 25 minutes of intermittent dolphin observation. Then the wind picked up and conditions deteriorated. The highest winds we clocked measured 20.8 m/s. Needless to say, the afternoon was spent in the lab.

 

March 5, Wednesday

 

The weather conditions have not improved, so we worked on the whistle collection in the lab again. We counted whistles and recorded acoustical data in the new notebook.

 

March 6, Thursday

 

Today we continued with the whistle project since a strong storm lingered over Golfo Aranci all day. Since last night, the rain continued on and off. In the lab, we counted and recorded seconds, minutes and whistles. Occasionally, we listened to recordings to detect more whistles that had not been located.  

March 7, Friday

 

This morning’s lab work included photo ID and whistle collection. Since the weather improved overnight and held out during the morning, we went to sea in the afternoon.

The sea was still amazingly calm, especially compared to yesterday when even the trawlers didn’t go out. Visibility improved as well. With such great conditions, we had 3 great, continuous sightings.

 

March 8, Saturday

 

Since the mechanic is coming tomorrow morning, we did our house cleaning today. After lunch we all went on a field trip to the other coast to the tide pools. Rock climbing and collecting species, we lost track of time. Eventually, we did make it make to the base house for some lab work – more whistle detection and recording.

 

March 9, Sunday

 

We met the Oblia mechanic at the harbor this morning to go on a trial run of the Spartana. After working on the boats until lunch, we had free time the rest of the day.

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Summary of the week 24th February - 2nd March (by Julia)

Sunday February 24th, 2008:

We went out after getting up at 7am to the Spartana (research vessel).  We went at sea and found that dolphins were located in the Fish Farm area (two) and three outside (with one immature), feeding.  It was difficult to manage notes with the dolphins spread out.   We followed the group as they moved off towards Travolara Island and Figarolo Island.  At one point one of the interns was following a dolphin on the starboard side of the Spartana, and another happened to look at a particular time when right next to the Spartana (maybe 5 ft away) Tacca surfaced with two RD and disappeared into the group.  It was amazing seeing the dolphin in real life, not just on the computer.

            I can’t describe how it felt to suddenly see and recognize a particular dolphin (easy as it is with him), just fantastico!  I was doing surveys at the time and intermediate positions every three minutes while on the move following dolphins, every five-min while On Effort (without tracking dolphins) and every twenty for surveys.  Then the dolphins disappeared heading toward Tavolara point while we curved around to head through the channel between the mainland and Figarolo Island. 
Our day was done, as Bruno was trying to figure out the problem with the throttle.  Well he found that while the throttle was in neutral we were going about 5.1knots!  That is not neutral!   

 

Monday, February 25th, 2008:
 The morning consisted of lab work.  We transcribed yesterday’s data, then we did some errands before lunch.  After lunch Bruno, Stephanie and I went aboard a fish farm boat for an afternoon course.  We didn’t see any dolphins this day.

Right before leaving the fish farm Bruno went over and cut out a cormorant to try and save it by brining it home. 

 

Tuesday February 26th, 2008:
Andrea, Stephanie and I went out for a morning course.  Then only thing to note is that there was a solitary dolphin early on (we only noticed it after switching boats) Rinco (R1).  Then later on a group spread out between the fish farm, White Beach, and Figarolo point.  There were 5 animals including one immature. 

            It was crazy, Stephanie would say, “there’s one over here”, while I’m writing down what Andrea was seeing, we really didn’t have enough eyes for that sighting.  At one point there were three between fish farm and Figarolo Island.  They were feeding together and it was amazing, in the middle a fast surface toward us and two full leaps on both sides of the one in the middle, both arching away from the one in the middle!  It really was beautiful to see!       

Stephanie and I went to Olbia on the train and after some difficulty with the language barrier I was able to get the frames replaced and it didn’t cost too much.  We then spent the rest of the time waiting for the 7:20p bus back by seeing a little of Olbia.  We did some shopping in a local housewares/thrift store, visited a small market and heard Mass outside of the San Simplicio Church. 

Right after the mass got out we went back to the train station.  Once there I attempted to read from my travel book the phase for, “when is the next train…Golfo Aranci”.  

 

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008:
We had planned on going out in the afternoon, however, the wind was too strong for going out, so we spent the entire day in the lab.  Today we learned how to use a new program used to analyze whistles.  The program was originally created to analyze bird songs, but was sent to Bruno, and he liked the program.  You can copy specific required figures used to analyze dolphin whistles.  It isn’t very complicated once you practice with it for a while, but the problem arose when he tried to save the required information in Excel. 
He had a programmer create an Excel calculator, which calculates certain items then places them in assigned columns in an Excel Spread sheet.  Apparently, the calculator was wrong for certain items, and so we only use it to calculate partial times (1/4, ½, ¾,) and that’s all.  The rest is saved by Mouse Points Textbook.  Other wise we worked on Photo ID with Andrea.  That is how the day went, basically.

 

Thursday, February 28th, 2008:
            Thursday went almost like Wednesday, except we were able to go out in the afternoon (after lunch) then back to the lab.  Andrea saw two dolphins, that  disappeared near the Travolara island.  They were only present for one minute and were about 500m away following a trawler.
            When Andrea, Stephanie and I went back to the BDRI, Stephanie and I switched jobs in the lab.  Before lunch I had been trying to identify up to 9 dolphin individuals for sighting number 44 in 2007.  I only got one for sure, Vicco (V1), and the rest was unknown to me.  After the survey I continued with acoustics and once 19:05 came we were mercifully let go to rest our tired minds.  Bruno made mushroom/bacon rissoto for dinner after Stephanie had made broccoli pasta for lunch.

 

Friday February 29, 2008:
            This morning we went out, and again it was crazy.  I saw our first sighting for the day.  It turned out to be Tacca (T1), but because we were moving we lost sight of him.  Then upon our arrival I saw two dolphins, which turned into 1 + 2 TTR with Tacca – male (T1), Markita – female (M1), and Figarolo – female (F2). 
            Then right in front of us White-spot - female (W1) appeared shortly followed by Rinco – male (R1).  Very cool, but I was stressed writing down everything as it happened.  This sighting was so crazy; the Dolphins appeared at the same time in different places sometimes and then disappeared at other times for minutes on end.  I felt very frazzled trying to get everything down legibly on paper.  Later during the third sighting, after Stephanie and I switched jobs, and M1/W1 were together to make a third sighting.  Then after we got back from the field Bruno had lunch made (Spaghetti), and after lunch we had a break until four.  Following the lab session we had dinner, Polenta (a corn mush with tomato sauce), which is sweet and very filling.
           
Saturday, March 1st, 2008 and Sunday, March 2nd, 2008:

Worked on Spartana and had lab on Saturday, then cleaned and did wash for Sunday. 

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