Wild Dolphin Societies

Earthwatch - Wild Dolphin Societies
Teachers in the Field

January 24, 2002

I was so proud of Quidnessett students this morning! Your questions and behavior were excellent. It wasn't easy to choose among your questions and if we had enough time we would have tried to answer all of them. Kim and Jason were very impressed with you. Mrs. Kim Bassos Hull is a Senior Marine Biologist at Mote Marine Laboratory and has participated in and led many studies on bottlenose and spinner dolphins. Mr. Jason Allen is a Research Assistant and helps out where ever he is needed. He went out several times with us on boat surveys and was both captain and photographer. Remember that the bottlenose jawbone is hollow and that is where the clicks and whistles return to the dolphin to process. Notice the skull below and visualize the melon from where the bottlenose dolphin sends out his "signature whistle" and clicks.	Hollow jawbone of the dolphin
Bottlenose dolphin skull	Bottlenose dolphin ear bones
Look carefully at dark patches under the blue water - seameadow grasses.	After our video conference (check out the link on the dolphin homepage), we met at the boat, the MimiMako, and went out to survey. We had two sightings but the wind picked up out of the southeast and it became difficult to handle the boat and take photos in the chop. We returned early and listened to Dr. Randy Wells explain with a slide show the Dolphin Research Project. He emphasized the ecology of the bay and the importance of the seameadow beds of grasses upon which all life in the bay depends.
The photo on the right shows what is left of a coastal mangrove shoreline. This plant is native to Florida and fish live amid its roots and birds are safe and protected in its twisted shrubbery. A canal was dug out on one side and the narrow piece is all that is hanging on. This is one example of the eroding Florida shoreline and its effects on wildlife.	mangroves

Above you see two plants and one of them is not native to Florida. Can you tell which one? The lowlying shrubbery on the right are native mangroves and the tall evergreen type tree is Australian Pine. Australian Pine is an "introduced species." Probably it was planted as a decorative shrub either at a home or a resort. It grows everywhere now and is crowding out the mangroves. It doesn't stand up well in windy conditions and in the sand, so on many islands you see the pines fallen over, looking very messy and creating untidy shorelines. It is an example of how the balance of nature can so very easily be altered.
Little little fish in the water near the boat	Florida lizard
Yellow-crowned night heron	Picking up trash in the bay.
I asked Dr. Wells for an example of how our Narragansett Bay and Sarasota Bay might be connected. Does what happen in one place really matter to the other? "Definitely," he told us, "and in ways we are just beginning to understand." In Chicago when pollutants are dumped they enter the watershed, continue down the Mississippi River aquifer and enter the Gulf of Mexico. So it is with the Gulf stream which is a current that goes around Florida and continues up the East coast to our shores. Ever hear of Red Tide? It is a natural "blooming" of algae and it is toxic (can be fatal) to fish and dolphins. Red Tide can bloom in New England and continues down into Florida.	Notice the pipe that opens out into the bay and carries pollutants with it.
	Dr. Wells told us that the sharks were the dolphins' major predator in the Gulf, but that for various reasons, the population of sharks has been decimated by 80%. So sharks are no longer a big threat to dolphins. Dolphins have been found dead with stingray barbs caught in them. How is this connected? Well sharks ate stingrays and now the stingray population has blossomed and the dolphins in shallow water disturbs the stingray who lashes out in self-defense. WE ARE ALL CONNECTED!