Journals 2003/2004

Elizabeth Gibbs
Thompson Middle School, Newport, Rhode Island

Another spectacular sunrise followed by a day on the small boat. The dolphins were more restful today, very little leaping and flipping. The behavior survey was much less rigorous than Friday. Some of the dolphins seems to drift along almost in a doze. Perfect for photo i.d. Tim and Anita shot about 1,300 photos. The number of photos to be sorted, traced, and matched daily is rather overwhelming. Tim had hoped to get 2500 pictures today, but the wind began to come up; not much, but to about 15 knots, swells about 2 meters. It was hard to see the dolphins and eventually they spread out so much we felt as though we'd lost them. We came back early, about two o'clock. Lots of thoughts and questions arose out on the water today and I was filled with an appreciation of how much time scientists need to spend and how much data must be collected and analyzed to learn about dusky dolphins, or any other wild animal that travels in such large groups.