Bonehenge. Marine Mammalogy Conference. Fun Dolphin Pictures.

It is busy here in many ways. Keith is going to Quebec City, Canada in early October to present a poster session on creating a skeletal display from a stranded sperm whale at the biennial Biology of Marine Mammals Conference. This is the poster.

To see a legible version of the Bonehenge Poster go to bonehenge.org and click on 'Bonehenge Updates' on the front page and then on 'bonehenge Poster'.

We've been out on the boat doing Photo ID often in the last weeks. As is pretty typical of September we have seen some larger groups of dolphins in the estuary and in the ocean, primarily adults but a few calves. They have often been in shallow water and have seemed very energetic. We too have felt more energetic as the intense heat and humidity have lessened. These are photos from these sightings.





The dolphins were swimming under the boat, around the boat, away from the boat and toward the boat, with each other and separately. They would zoom around and then slow down and stop. They didn't seem to be feeding. Since they are so fast,
some of the pictures are just after the 'perfect moment'.
photos by Keith Rittmaster

August 2009 Stats

Bottlenose Dolphin Photo-ID. Our sightings of dolphins continue to be low for this time of year. We did see 'Oprah' with a nursery group and 'Caitlin' with her calf.
We were out on the water 8 days in August
We had 3 separate sightings and
We have photos of 13 distinct, and therefore identifiable, dorsal fins.

http://capelookoutstudies.org/ web site received 312 hits this month.
http://www./bonehenge.org/BONEHENGE/(S(3jfax35541rmmj45ywd5lff4))/Default.aspx web site received 9,804 hits this month
http://www.spyhoplog.blogspot.com/ blog received 101 hits this month.

NC Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program. We sent off 2 boxes, approximately 40 miles. of recovered monofilament to the recyclers. Terry Greene delivered a new bin to the Estuarium in Washington, (little Washington) NC.
Received a $100 donation from Linda Boyer in little Washington, for this program NCMRRP.

No known Marine Mammal strandings.

More on Cutty and her Neonate in 2009

Back in May we reported seeing 'Cutty' and her neonate in the Newport River estuary here in Beaufort, NC. Here is a little more information about her:
Cutty is one of our most photographed dolphins. She is an experienced mother now with the seventh calf we have seen her with since we started photographing her in July of 1985. (There may have been some we missed) She is an example of one of our summer dolphins, seen in our waters from late April through early October. When Cutty and her calves are not in Beaufort waters, we know they go south to the area around Wilmington, NC. This is confirmed by comparing our dolphin dorsal fin photos with those of researchers from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, NC. and excitedly finding matches.

photos by Keith Rittmaster