Hello, this is Andrew Heaney yet again. On my last blog, I was hoping that I would see some marine mammals. Well, we finally saw some awesome marine mammals, and then some! The past few days we’ve seen a few Bottlenose dolphins around the boat, which were glimpses at best. However, this morning we were in a Dolphin-Spotter’s paradise. This morning, I woke up to see a total of over a hundred Short-beaked common dolphins, surrounding the boat for hours on end. They were performing many different behaviors, including bow-riding, breaching, porpoising, slow-rolling, and even possible feeding!

In addition to this, while I was on my Marine Mammal Observation shift this morning, a few workmates and I managed to spot at least two or three sharks hanging around near the massive dolphin pod. Upon closer inspection, they appeared to be Scalloped hammerhead sharks, as well as possibly a Silky shark. What a morning!

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Several common dolphins playing near the boat. Note the yellow on the sides.
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Some common dolphins bow-riding.

 

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