July Photo ID and Stranding Stats

4 Days on the water looking for dolphins
3 Sightings of dolphin individuals or pods
10 Dolphins with fins distinct enough to identify as either known or new.
Predictably and fortunately there were no known marine mammal strandings in our area.

Surprise Donation to Help Wild Dolphins

CHANGE FOR CHANGE

Marissa McCabe, an elementary school girl from Wake Forest, NC learned about our program of Monofilament Recycling and Recovery . On her own she created a very catchy 'save the dolphins' campaign. This is the info that she circulated.And, to add to the appeal she made small change purses for people collecting their 'Change for Change'. When they donated their money, they could keep the purses. Here are pictures of both sides of the purse.

Her card reads: "Change for Change". Bottlenose dolphins are getting entangled in discarded fishing line. This is killing and harming these beautiful dolphins off the NC Coast. Please consider donating the change you collect to protect this precious marine wildlife.

What a wonderful, thoughtful and caring act of contributing Marissa did. Thanks, Marissa, maybe you will inspire others.

Bones

We do a lot with bones here. The biggest project is the sperm whale skeleton re-articulation -http://www.bonehenge.org/
But, I am particularly moved by the beauty of many types of bones.From time to time I will post some pictures of various bones. Still deciding if it would be more fun for you to guess whose they were or tell you....hmmmm....
With bone pictures, please don't copy them - email us and we can get a copy to you. http://www.spyhoplog@gmail.com/
Thanks.


photos by Brooks

And just a few more,

Fox Kits

On the Gallants Channel property in Beaufort, NC. near our office and the water are fox dens. Last year they were dug in the bottom of a 3-4 foot rise in the sand, well disguised. This year they are much more right out in the middle of an open area. No idea why. Keith swept the sand smooth in front of the den to confirm that they were currently in use. Fresh footprints appeared. He took some pictures - these are from last year but the kits look pretty much the same this year. The way Keith took the pictures was neat. Early one morning -they are more active dawn and dusk-he set up a digital camera on a tripod set to take a frame every 2 seconds. He went to the office and returned in 2 hours and found these pictures.

On this first picture you can see one of the den entrances behind the kit. He or she is looking at the camera - something new in his familiar environment.

photos by Keith Rittmaster

July Public Interaction

This writer has been traveling and nursing the flu, so after no posts for a month, there is a lot to post.
July Public Interaction

George Olson of NPR/PRE aired an interview with Keith about the Bonehenge Sperm Whale Skeleton project. It was good and here is the link

Keith was interviewed and quoted in the July '09 Outside magazine in their featured article on Dolphin 56 - the 'Beggar'.

Keith gave three presentations at the NC Maritime Museum about Bonehenge.org. and three about NC Dolphins. He also gave six tours of the Bonehenge Barn where we keep and work on the the Sperm Whale bones.

The portable monofilament recycling container spent two days at a fishing tournament on Atlanta Beach, NC in the main tent where everyone gathered. This shot was taken
just before they gathered.
photos by Brooks