May 5 - Happy Cinco de Mayo

From north to south: Roberto, Lea, with Yaana still outside the mouth of the bay.

May 4 - Downtown San Blas!

The northern-most dolphin is Lea, with Roberto to the southwest, and Yaana outside the mouth of the bay.

For most people, this year's site could be on the moon. Bahia San Blas, where is that? Well, a bit more on this northern edge of Argentina's Patagonia... The dolphins can be found pretty close to shore. Bahia San Blas is a small town. That's a picture of "downtown San Blas" which only has a population of 300 or so. Though there are not a bunch of people, it seems the dolphins like it just as much as last year's site of Bahia San Borombon which is further north.

May 3, 2007

From west to east: Roberto, Lea, with Yaana outside the mouth of the bay.

May 2, 2007

From north to south: Roberto, Lea, with Yaana outside the mouth of the bay.

May 1 - Getting Data

From west to east the dolphins are: Roberto, Lea, and Yaana has moved back into the bay.

I've gotten some questions from readers asking how we get the tags on the dolphins to create the daily maps that I am posting. It is hard work! The tagging research involves a team of about 40 people on 6-7 boats, and a long net that encircles 1-3 dolphins in shallow water (less than two meters deep). We then measure the dolphin, attach a satellite-linked transmitter to its dorsal fin, obtain a blood sample for health assessment, and release the dolphin---all within about 5-10 minutes! I am lucky to work with such a solid group. The photo on the left is of Yaana's release.

Follow-up work involves receiving downloads of dolphin positions over the computer back in the lab. We plan to initiate periodic observations of the dolphins in Bahia San Blas, in which team members will use small boats to find dolphins and photograph their fins with a digital camera with a telephoto lens, looking for nicks, notches, and tags. In fact, I mentioned last week that Dr. Bordino got some new funding to do this very soon. I am looking forward to posting some of the photos he gets.

April 30, 2007

Roberto to the west, Lea to the north, and Yaana still outside the mouth of Bahia San Blas.

April 29, 2007

Thanks to two generous donations (thank you, Presidente!), Pablo will soon have a team in San Blas for several weeks who will be monitoring the tagged animals, and for initiating photographic identification studies. Hopefully, we will have some photos to post on the blog soon.