Day Six - March 28

Last Day of Project Term

Examining a Green Turtle shell

Today was our last full day of Project Term. We went to the Turtle Hospital and learned a lot about the facility and the process of rescuing, recovering, and releasing the sea turtles of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. We were educated on how littering impacts sea turtles greatly. Many sea turtles mistake plastic bags and balloons in the water for jellyfish, which are part of their natural diet. They swallow them and they get stuck in their digestive track and they can no longer digest the

One of the patients at the Turtle Hospital

food they eat. They are also affected by commercial fishing debris much in the same way dolphins are. They get entangled in nets and swallow hooks. The Turtle Hospital was very fascinating and allowed us to understand how pollution affects all sea life.

The tour of the Turtle Hospital marked the end of our intellectual growth experience and we focused the rest of the day on community building. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and spent a couple of hours at Sombrero Beach. We had fun interacting with each other and we also got to meet some locals and their cute puppies. From there we changed and headed back to our dorms for some packing. We ended the night with a fun dinner at another local restaurant where we were delighted to run into a girl who attends the Sacred Heart school in Bryn Mawr! It was great to talk to her and her family and discuss the similarities and differences of her school and our school.

We returned to the dorm and held our last nightly reflection led by Micaela, Maria, Abby, and Katie. Ms. Brooks and Mrs. Rumbell surprised us and adopted a dolphin for each of us in our name. The dolphins were assigned to us based on the similarities of our individual personalities and the dolphins' individual "dolphinalities." Sadly, we are all preparing to come home tomorrow. We learned so much valuable information on this Project Term experience and are sad that it has come to an end, but we look forward to sharing all our knowledge about dolphins and other marine mammals with everyone at home.

Day Five - March 27

We Love Our Dolphins and the DRC!

Waiting for our Dolphin Encounter

Today was our last day working at the DRC with all of our exciting new friends Noelle, Hannah, and Doug. Our morning started off like every morning, saying good morning to the dolphins. Then it was time for our Dolphin Encounter, which is our actual swim with the dolphins and some fun signaling activities as well. Although today was much warmer than yesterday, it was still breezy, so the water was a bit chilly for us. We didn't mind though because we were having so much fun with them. After we all jumped in the water and practiced a few signals we were ready to work with the dolphins. We got to give them back rubs, handshakes, raspberries, kisses, and other fun behaviors. Then we were all given the chance to swim to the middle of the lagoon where the dolphins swam out to us, picked us up, and gave us a ride around the lagoon and then back to the dock! Everyone had huge smiles on their faces and created a memory to last forever. The DRC photographed each one of us individually so we have a permanent reminder of this special experience.

The entire Dolphin Lab group

After our swim we dried off an headed back into the classroom for a seminar on dolphin maternity. This was a memorable seminar for a lot of us. We learned that dolphins give birth tail first, unlike humans. After the calves come out, the mother quickly swims away from the baby to break the umbilical cord, then the baby calf makes its way to the surface to take his or her first breath. All this information and swimming earlier made us especially hungry, so it was time for lunch. The afternoon was spent observing dolphin sessions and attending two more seminars. In one afternoon seminar we learned about the laws that surround marine mammals and in the other we learned about their environment and how humans affect it, and not in a good way. Reduce, reuse, recycle are important words to live by to try and help our marine mammals' sustainability.

Our day concluded saying our last good bye to the dolphins and having our last reflection with the DRC staff. They also threw a pizza party for us and we enjoyed each other's company playing games and Hannah shared her henna talents with us. It was a great day. Even though we are very excited to venture to the turtle hospital tomorrow, the DRC will always hold a special place in all of our hearts.

Day Four - March 26

(Sea) Lions and Signals, and Dolphins - Oh My!

Today was our fourth day of our Dolphin Lab experience. We started our day with saying good morning to the dolphins, as we always do, followed by a seminar on the "stranding" of marine mammals. We learned that a stranding is a rescue of a mammal in shallow waters or on the beach and the rehab process of that mammal (or mammals). Did you know that dolphins are the most single-stranded marine mammal and that pilot whales are the most group-stranded marine mammals? It's true, but no one really knows why. 

Our day continued with a Question and Answer session with Armando "Mandy" Rodriquez, co-founder of the DRC. Many of us found our session with Mandy very inspiring. He told us that we can do anything we set our minds to and explained how he enjoys his occupation so much that it doesn't feel like work. We left with a sense that we should follow our passion when it comes to work. Soon after our QnA session with Mandy, Noelle taught us about the dolphin training program. We learned that the dolphins at the DRC are never punished for incorrect behaviors. In other words, they do not withhold food from the dolphins if they do not perform a behavior correctly; they are just not recognized with praise. They are rewarded for what they do correctly, which reinforces the positive behaviors. 

Karen showing us her skills

Mandy had to leave to attend to other things and that gave us the chance to experience a new marine mammal that we just heard about in our pinniped seminar yesterday: the sea lion. We had an up-close encounter with Karen, the 26-year-old blind sea lion whose home is at the DRC. We sat on the dock while we watched Karen carefully navigate using her hearing and touching. She showed off many of her skills such as waving and "shame" and we were blown away by the power of her bark. 

Clare asking AJ to perform "concert"

Our favorite session came next: signaling! Signals are used to prompt the dolphins to perform a specific behavior. Dolphins respond to hand signals, sometimes coupled with verbal signals, but mostly just with the hands. We each got to choose three signals, two for low-energy behaviors and one for high-energy behaviors. We individually got to ask (not make) a dolphin perform a behavior and test our our signaling skills, and they did! Rachel opted to purchase a t-shirt to be painted by one of the dolphins. Rainbow painted her a beautiful t-shirt by holding the paint

Rachel with Rainbow's Masterpiece

brush in his mouth and applying the pink and blue brush strokes to the t-shirt. She has a wonderfully unique memento from her experience here. Whether we opted for the t-shirt or the three signaling experiences, we all had a fantastic time and pretty much agreed that this was the funnest session so far. It was amazing to see how excited the dolphins got with each completed task. After much excitement, we said good night to the dolphins and made our way back to the dorms for dinner and reflection.

Tomorrow is our last official day at the DRC and our Dolphin Encounter. That means we will be in the water with the dolphins for a one-on-one session. We start at 9:30AM, so you might see us on the DRC webcam if you check it out. We're not sure which dock we'll be on, but if you scan through them, you just might see us!

Day Three - March 25

A LOT of Seminars Today

Meet Tanner!

Today was our second full day at the Dolphin Research Center (DRC) and because of the rain we stayed inside the entire morning watching a European documentary called Dolphin Days about the DRC, which has dolphins in captivity, and The Wild Dolphin Project, which researches dolphins in the wild. It was an informative documentary from both perspectives. The DRC takes in dolphins that are illegally dumped into the wild, which often come from the show business industry or other facilities where the dolphins have been exposed to human interaction. They also take in rescues that cannot be rehabilitated back into the wild, and retirees from show business as well (i.e. Sea World, the movies, etc.). If a dolphin has had a great deal of human interaction, either through being a show animal for example, or even as a rescue who has had too much human interaction because of the recovery time, there are laws prohibiting its release into the wild because the chance of survival is minimal. That's where the DRC comes in. They are there to help in cases like these. For example, Jax was a young dolphin who was rescued. He was severely injured from a shark attack and his rehabilitation was long. He couldn't be released into the wild, so the DRC took him in. It's good to know that these dolphins have a place to go to spend the rest of their lives in a loving environment.

After watching Dolphin Days, we learned about pinnipeds, which are seals, sea lions, and walruses. We didn't get to have the scheduled observation with the sea lions today, but we'll get to see it tomorrow and are looking forward to meeting Kilo, Karen, and Lina (the sea lions). Following the seminar on pinnipeds we had lunch and finally got to go out to observe the dolphins. After the short visit with them, we were back in the classroom to learn about dolphin acoustics. Dolphins rely mostly on their hearing, so this was an information-filled session. We learned about echolocation, which is the sound dolphins make to figure out where things

are in the water. Dolphins also have unique whistles called Signature Whistles. They are sort of like "names" they give themselves and each is unique to an individual dolphin whether in captivity or in the wild. From this seminar we went back out to hear the underwater sounds they make. We sat on the dock while Noelle placed the microphone in the water. Through the speaker we could hear the different sounds the dolphins make under the water. Jacqueline recorded some of the sounds for her output.

Our last session of the day was about how the DRC helps people with special needs. They have several programs in place that help people with special needs physically and emotionally. They have public and private programs and several groups come to visit every year. They really do a lot to help those in need. It was the session many of us were most interested hearing about.

After our last session we said good night to the dolphins, as we always do, and headed back to the dorms for dinner, which was prepared by our favorite instructor, Doug. We had chicken stir fry with rice, and ice cream for dinner. We ended the day with reflection led by Jerri and Tate. Tomorrow is a fun-filled and information-filled day again. We look forward to more time outside, even though it's going to be a little cooler at 71.

Day Two, March 24 -- Our First Dolphin Dip

Whether it's because of the heat and humidity or having too much fun with the dolphins during our eight-hour stay today at the DRC, we (Rachel and Ava who are writing this blog) can attest to the fact that everyone is drained. After breakfast, the first activity we participated in was the Dolphin Dip. During this activity, we stood in the water of the front lagoons and played with the dolphins. We got to rub their backs, command them to dance, jump, make raspberries, and other things. (Perhaps you even saw us on the webcam on the Dolphin Research Center website). This was, by far, the most fun activity of the day since we got to interact with the dolphins. Most of the day involved watching different training sessions with the dolphins, but we also had a class on the physiology of dolphins, learned about their diet, and also were shown how the dolphins participate during medical procedures. 

After a jam-packed day full of learning, we concluded the day with a taco dinner prepared by Kelly, one of

the DRC workers, and a group reflection on our learnings and challenges for the day. Everyone is looking forward to getting some sleep and seeing what the following days have in store. It is obvious that the staff at the DRC are passionate about what they do and we can only hope to emphasize their passion and the fun we are having through our blog posts and Tweets. Stay tuned!

Day One, March 23 -- Arrival and Orientation

Today was our travel day, so it consisted mostly of our flight to Miami, which was just over two hours, and our car ride into the Keys, which seemed a lot longer than the flight with all the traffic. We lunched together at TGIFridays and then headed to Grassy Key. When we arrived at the Dolphin Research Center (DRC) we met our instructors and had a thorough orientation of what to expect on our visit.
We listened intently as our instructors described in great detail the emotions and behavior of the dolphins. The dolphins are the center of the Dolphin Lab experience, which means that they dictate the schedule. So basically, it's all about them! We learned that they like to hear their names and to be waved at, but not touched in the face. Our instructors Noelle, Hannah, and Doug made a delicious spaghetti dinner for us and we had the job to clean up after ourselves. The DRC is all about "no waste" and conservation, so we're being good stewards of the earth by not wasting food, recycling, and using little, if any, paper and plastic products. Our day ended with our first reflection led by Lauren and Jacqueline. We are excited to see what the Dolphin Research Center has in store for us tomorrow.

Getting Ready!

Sea Mammals Everywhere!

We're four days from departure and spending our last Project Term meeting together sharing lunch and the research information the partner groups gathered. In the image you see the whale presentation given by Jerri and Abby. Did you know that Killer Whales are really dolphins?!

Here is the list of students and their research topic:

Jerri and Abby: Whales

Jacqueline and Rachel: Dolphins

Hannah and Micaela: Porpoises

Clare and Katie: Sea Turtles

Ava and Maria: Sea Lions

Lauren and Tate: The Dolphin Research Center

Be sure to ask one of them questions about her research and what she learned.

We leave bright and early on Sunday, March 23. Check back with us Sunday evening when we'll have an update on our day's learning and activities. Leave us comments and questions -- we'd love to hear from you!