Team II - Science and Fun

These last few days went really fast. We have been busy with both projects and collected an enormous amount of data. Team II is very proud of its hard work. So far we have identified 43 dolphins, many of which are mothers with either neonates or very young calves. For the first time in years we are caught up with photo-identification early in the season, thanks to Mark's keen observational skills.

We are catching up to the pattern the dolphins are exhibiting this season. They are, as usual, moving up and down the coast but this year they seem to prefer the southern portion of the bay, or at least, the mother/calf group that we have been trying to decode seems to like it near the Barge. There are other dolphins in the bay though, and these we found up north, all the way up near Seacliff Beach.

Anchovies seem to still be abundant in the bay and the dolphins forage for them just slightly offshore, beyond the crest of the breakers. However, the foraging frenzies of last year are over, and we see the animals resting and traveling slowly much more often.

We have seen quite a few aerial behaviors, even high jumps which are not common for this population. The calves in the nursery group are particularly rambunctious. They are eager to ride the wake of our boat for long periods of time and seem to wait for us to "speed it up" impatiently by positioning their sprinty tiny bodies just in front of the boat and looking up in a "plea" for fun.

We have also discovered that by tapping the sides of the boat with our hand, we easity peak the curiosity of the little ones which come closer and inspect the source of the weird noise. Playing with the calves a couple of days ago, was the height of our week.

In the sea otter department we are doing very well. We have completed another long 24-hour observation bout and got to watch them haul out near Seal Beach in Moss Landing Harbor. We had up to 15 animals on shore between 1 and 5 am.

We discovered that sea otters vocalize more frequently at night perhaps to keep in touch with the rest of the group. It is true that during the day there is a lot of noise that could mask some of the vocalizations, but the sounds we are hearing and recording at night are distinct and quite loud at times and we would certainly hear then during the day as well since we are quite close to the raft.

The first few recordings are already in so stay tuned for more information on what we are finding out.