Work starts at the crack of dawn (which for a college student is defined: before noon). We arrive at the lab and check in, also seeing if the weather is good enough to go out. Then we prepare and check that all the necessary gear is ready: GPS (with batteries), water cooler, data sheets in the data cooler, and other things such as radio tracking gear. With our skipper, we head down to the boat, get everything loaded, and then our day really starts.
      On the dolphin behavior boats we begin by anchoring in the sailing squadron and estimating how far away boats are. We start off horribly wrong all the time but by the end of a season we are only horribly wrong occasionally. Then we commence the work of driving around and looking for dolphins. This part can take a while. When we see dolphins we stop and take some data and some pictures and figure out who the dolphins are. By the end of the season the interns even know a few animals like Riptorn and Killer. If we see a dolphin our skipper (the researcher, often a graduate student) is studying, then we will get out other data sheets and prepare to follow that dolphin. At first it is frantic trying to get down all the data and the confusion of the skipper/researcher calling out multiple sets of data at once. Soon we get the hang of things and have time to look at the dolphins as well.  We also have time to observe the antics of other boats on the water reacting to us and the dolphins. The most common reaction is that a boat comes by, takes pictures, and possibly asks us what we are doing before moving on. Sometimes the boaters have more interesting questions for us. Once when following an animal that was part of a socializing group we heard a boater ask (though not of us) “Do they have beer under the boat?” Our skipper explained our research to them, as we always do when asked. At the end of our day we return, clean the boat and gear, and then download the data to the computer so we can do it all again the next day.
      Some days we do other things.  On those bad weather days when we cannot get out on the water there are plenty of lab tasks to learn and complete such as: Photo-Id, data entry in Access, and working with GIS, a mapping program.  Field work is not all fun and games with (non-alcoholic) dolphins, there are also fun and games with fish and birds.  The bird boat, which looks for seabirds, gets up even earlier than the dolphin boat, but they get in earlier too.  The fishing boat, uses a purse seine to collect dolphin prey fish.  After catching the fish, we count and measure them, and have a lot of “fun” trying to hold on to slippery squirming fish, before returning them to their home.  My dolphin interests have varied from social communication to the hormones of stress, and the staff at SDRP have helped me find the resources and connections to pursue it all.  I want to thank them for all the help and advice that they have given me.