JoJo

Hi All,
As some of you may know a huge front just came through leaving the seas rough for a few days. Today however was totally flat until the end of the day.
We found JoJo first thing in the am. He was alone in front of Beaches. As you can see, he has sustained two cuts that are starting to heal.
After leaving JoJo we motored to the end of Pine Cay where we had found a whale the first day we were here. My brother's colleague had lent me a hydrophone and we dropped it in the water after the whale dove. He was singing loudly! Today we found a whale in the same place and we again used the hydrophone. This time we could here some sort of whale chatting faintly in the distance!!

Later in the day we found a mother and calf in the really murky water at the end of Fort George Cay. They were joined by JoJo and Raggedy Ann. I'm quite sure the mom and calf was Julia and Frisky. JoJo was instrumental as always in putting me right in the middle of the pod. Before he showed up, I couldn't get very close to Julia and Frisky.

Sexually Charged

Hi All,

This is some more footage that I was horrified that I almost lost! The day after Raggedy Ann swam upside down in front of me. We came upon JoJo, RA, Lemon Lips and maybe BB Tip. The two juveniles  were clearly vying to mate with RA. You can see that they are aroused as they push each other out of the way and ram into one another. I assume that besides being males!! She was in estrous.
Jay

Fun Footage

Hi All,
We are back for our last trip of the season. When I was home we were able to retrieve some footage that went missing! The first one is with JoJo and Raggedy Ann. After JoJo and RA come to greet me, I follow RA who eventually takes me over a reef. You will occasionally see her waiting and looking to see if I'm keeping up!

Jay

JoJo and Julia

Hi All,
Our last day until April has arrived. I'm so hoping to spend it with JoJo and friends.
We get lucky again and find JoJo and Raggedy Ann at Leeward heading toward Pine Cay. They are traveling at quite a clip which usually means they have a rendezvous with another dolphin or dolphins. They let me swim along with them but I have to swim like mad to keep up. Not only have all the cameras died but my feet have blisters from my flippers! When we get to the end of Pine Cay, they head out toward the reef and two more dolphins show up. This is the best time to swim with them. I get back in the water and JoJo heads for me. He always wants me in on these get togethers. Julia and Frisky have joined them. JoJo is being VERY amorous with Julia while Frisky goes off with Raggedy Ann. There is a lot of flipper footsie and stroking. They are so close to me, most of the time right under me. Julia looks right at me. Apparently she's cool with me watching. JoJo takes off like a shot as a school of Bar Jacks swim by. I hope he got one but I'm not sure. All of them come together again with me right in the middle. They treat me like I'm one of them. I notice they are all turning and I see a boat has come up so they are swimming away. They are keeping me with them. JoJo is going over to the boat. He acts like a decoy, keeping people's attention from the others.  Now, they are speeding up and I can't keep up. Some swimmers have gotten in the water and the dolphins want to distance themselves from them. If only people would either get in and not charge over (they might have a shot to swim with the dolphins) or they could just watch. I have been swimming with JoJo for 15 years and have built up his trust to swim with his friends. These people think if they can just go fast, they too will get to swim with the dolphins. After the boat leaves, they come together again but the moment's lost. Now, its time for us to head back to the marina, pack up and head for home. This has been the most amazing February for cetaceans and I'm thankful for every one of them.

Lemon Lips and JoJo

Hi All,
I'm always hoping to see the calves that have gotten older and left their moms. Lemon Lips was one of my very favorite calves. I called him that because his lips always had a yellow tinge. My second book has lots of encounters with him and his mom, Bo. A few days ago when I watched JoJo, Raggedy Ann and two male dolphins, I thought the smaller male might be Lemon Lips. Now I'm sure.
We found JoJo leaping out of the wake of Kenard's huge motor catamaran. JoJo decided to switch over to our wake. His ultimate goal was to catch a ride to the channel between Fort George and Dellis Cay. When we got there he branched off and started to swim slowly around. We were wondering what would happen next - sleep mode? fish? meet another dolphin?
I decided to see if he wanted company and as I was getting in I noticed another dorsal heading his way. The water was very murky.  I could barely see a foot ahead of me under water so I kept looking up to see where the dorsal's were heading. The new comer was closer to me so, I went in his direction. When I got there I recognized his fluke from the past day. He was the smaller of the sexually aroused dolphins. He had two slight notches out of the right  side of his fluke. He let me come up right beside him as he traveled along to greet JoJo. Clearly JoJo had come to this area to meet him. It was very murky and hard to see what was going on but I could see they were happy to greet each other. As they traveled to a slightly less murky area, I could make out more activity. I think JoJo was giving him some sex education as there was a lot of stroking and showing of male parts. I ended up right in the middle of it all quite a few times but they didn't seem to mind. It's all very natural to them, it's just our society that gets uncomfortable with that behavior. Later, Julia and Frisky showed up but decided to leave the boys and go fishing. Lemon Lips and I got a lot of time to play. He always liked it when I made little tight circles above him. It was quite shallow where we were and I started circling and he circled right below me. JoJo clearly wanted me to hang with him and left us for a while. When JoJo wants me to go to another dolphin he leads me to them then hangs there waiting for me to go to them. Unfortunately a tour boat came and put  swimmers in the water. JoJo and Lemon Lips moved away just out of their reach. I had to wait until they left to resume my fun. JoJo was following me around but Lemon Lips was still way off in the distance. Eventually they came together and started back toward Leeward. I really think that meeting has made me happier than all the others. I love Lemon Lips and wasn't sure I'd see him again. Not only did I see him but, he remembered me and our games.

I have mentioned Flipper Footsie as an affection thing dolphins do and I found a clip from a day that shows it. Its at the very end of the clip. It's a bit murky and JoJo comes right in from of me but if you look carefully you'll see two dolphins playing flipper footsie. They are Lemon Lips and Raggedy Ann.

Forgiven

Hi All,
I'm relieved to say Julia seems to have forgiven me. We found Frisky and Julia and one other dolphin maybe one of the horny males from yesterday. The male stayed way away but Julia and Frisky swam right up and let me stay right with them for a very long time. I'm so glad all's well. I am heading home on Friday and would hate to leave wondering if she was still carrying a grudge.

Dolphins, Dolphins and More Dolphins

Hi All,

For my daughter's last day we had a day I couldn't have scripted any better. We came out of Leeward and as I looked toward the reef I saw a long flash in the water and wondered what I was seeing. Moments later two dolphins made high breaches right beside each other. We were then able to watch six dolphins traveling at speed toward Pine Cay breaching and fishing. The formation they were making looked like a large swath. I thought perhaps they were on a large school of fish. As we got almost to Half Moon beach, they all started for the boat. I thought that would be an oportunity to get in with them. JoJo was of course there when I got in however, when I looked down so was a large Nurse Shark that they were probably chasing at that moment. I got back on the boat not wanting the already harrassed Nurse Shark to take it out on me which has happened before. The next time I got in I could see JoJo, Raggedy Ann, a smaller male dolphin and a large male dolphin. They were vying for mating rights with Raggedy Ann. There was a lots of bashing and shoving going on. One of the males who was ready to mate was shoved out of the way. He had his male part out and dragged it through the sand. I couldn't tell whether the other dolphin got his way. It was very exciting and very physical down there! I did have the whole thing on camera but I'm having some real problems with our cameras so I will only put a little up as the rest didn't import correctly.
Once they all settled down, Julia and Frisky showed up. There didn't seem to be any residue from our fishing incident. I thought maybe Kristen could join me because she had now been accepted by Raggedy Ann and JoJo. I also felt the males had one thing on their minds and would be fine. I was right and Kristen got in and swam near JoJo as I went up with the others. They took us all the way to the shallow area in front of Dellis Cay where they spent three hours slowly swimming around. I'm sure from the patterns they were making they were in sleep mode. By this time our scooters were out of battery and all the cameras were out of commission! We stayed with them hoping to see where they would go next. I have always wondered where they went after they got past Pine Cay. There are three channels they could go out or they could go over the reef. Today they moved toward the reef then vanished! I would assume they or some of them did go over the reef. Seeing I didn't actually see the dorsals heading over the reef, I still don't know for sure.
We headed back toward Leeward thinking we had had a great day and were ready to go in. Not twenty minutes had gone by when Kristen spotted a huge splash across the reef. Of course we had to see if it was a whale. When we got past the reef, we started seeing many, many dorsals. There was a huge pod of Bottlenose dolphins heading back toward Pine Cay. Perhaps that was the pod the others were waiting to join??? Kristen and I got in a few times. They were every where. By the last time, we got in they were swimming all around us. Some coming from way down in the blue staring at us the whole way as they came up to get a closer look. Some of the calves circled at speed the way they always do.  Without the scooters running, we could hear so much whistling and of course there were bubble trails from the whistles. As the sun started to set, we got back in the boat and headed for the marina, our heads filled with images of dolphins swimming around us.