04 May 2002 - 09:43

Wednesday: Bussed to Mote. Saw a manatee in the manatee sanctuary area when we bussed over the bridge. LabLacky gave me the brief intro to working in that part of the lab. EClady had a nice chat with me while I was waiting for Dr. Starr and Raccoon[01] (the grad student working on the project with him) to get out of a meeting. EClady gave me the delectable news that Dr. Starr is indeed taking grad students, he's just not teaching classes yet. I can dig it. Better still, Dr. Starr and Raccoon were really nice. And Dr. Starr was really attentive to and interactive with Raccoon--of course, she really knows what she's doing, but that's how things ought to be.

The only mildly disappointing thing is that both of them refer to previous interns as "the intern." This is not at all uncommon with interns, volunteers, and students, but I've been spoiled by Gillian and Nelly, who make a point of calling interns, volunteers, and students by name.

Dr. Starr had just got in on Tues. and they were still setting up the office, and they didn't need my help, so I wandered over to the aquarium. I poked around my favorite exhibits--the cuttlefish, the ray petting tank--and the gift shop, where I saw a huge pile of rainbow colored plushy squids with posable arms and tentacles. I picked one of them up and found myself unable to put it back down, so I bought it for Wheel with my volunteer discount.

I realized I had just missed the hourly bus, so instead of waiting at the City Island bus stop, I walked to the one on St. Armands. I whipped out one of my garbage bags and gathered trash along the way, and boy was there a lot of it. I filled up the bag and was carrying large pieces before I was all the way there. I looked for the manatee seen earlier, but did not see one. I did see a bunch of fish with yellow heads in the shallows.

Thursday: Dr. Starr and Raccoon were still setting up and did not need me, so I got to go to Gillian's ALR class and also print out the catalogue for her top file drawer. Spent a long time messing with it for best readability. Liked the result. ALR was on Alex. So damn cool. I want an African Gray parrot...

Friday: Went to Mote at 9, happy. Rereading The Uplift War. Met Raccoon and Dr. Starr and we all headed into the boat, the Nai'a. Covered self with sunscreen, long pants, hat. I was lucky I'd gone out dolphin research boating before or I would have forgotten to bring stuff, like lunch (PB, honey, & raisin sandwich, carrot and brocolli bits, some canned blackberries that Wheel's parents gave us, and a stale fortune cookie which informed me to expect good news from afar). I didn't forget anything though, and I didn't get sunburned or seasick (ask me sometime about a very embarassing episode along those lines).

We sped across the whole bay. I'd never been that far north while in the bay, nor seen so much of the bay so fast. We went all the way up to Palma Sola Bay without any sightings. I actually made the first sighting, but it only sort of counts because I'm the only one who saw them, once, and they disappeared. They were really close though. Not long after that Raccoon saw more of them.

Raccoon has been working summers at Mote for seven years, ever since she was a Junior in college (like me!). She knows a bunch of individuals and she's familiar with driving the boat through the bay. Dr. Starr has only been here once before, so we needed Raccoon. She's interested in male dyads amongst the bottlenose, and recognized some of "her boys" right away. We ~followed a small group consisting of Otter (very distinctive fin), Bud, and possibly Rose. At one point Otter made a series of five fantastic leaps out of the water, up close. Awesome. I filled out the generic sarasota dolphin sighting form. Raccoon took photos for IDing. When the project starts in earnest, we'll all be busier on the boat. This was just a test run, to refamiliarize Raccoon and familiarize Starr with the set up and the phins. It sure was fun!

We got back pretty early and they didn't need me hanging around the lab, so I went to visit the turtles and Hugh & Buffett. I came out just in time to catch the bus, and sped happily home, where I spent the night thinking about environmentalism... but that's another post.

This summer will be fantastic.

[01] pseudonamed for the tanlines she has around her sunglasses, which she commented made her look like a raccoon.