As I mentioned before, the Kusi winds and rain make life difficult for dolphin research on the open seas. Yesterday our efforts on the water went unrewarded again… although I stick with my little mantra that “no data is still valuable data”!

Today however the team aboard ‘Lampard’ started with a promising early sighting, a group of four bottlenose dolphins sighted around the eastern end of Wasini Island. But the rough seas made for tough conditions under which to follow the small travelling group, let alone try to take the photos from which we would be able to try and identify the individuals.

So the search continued, rounding the end of Wasini Island in to Mpunguti marine reserve, cruising between the two Mpunguti islands and on in to Kisite marine park. The destination was Kisite Island where we hoping that the sheltered side would allow us at least to look for turtles in the water along one of our snorkel transects.  However before we ready to jump overboard, another group of four bottlenose dolphins approached the boat as the wind and waves subsided… leaving us with good conditions and a perfect opportunity to get back to what we had been trying earlier, photo-identification.

Besty with her distinctive dorsal fin notches 

Both Andy and Jamie were armed with cameras in a photo-ID duel. It was the two adult dolphins that were our key target, as they would hopefully be individuals catalogued over the past 3 and a half years that we could recognise. And in fact they both were, Nene (or individual 083) and Besty (individual 017 – the 17th individual we formally identified, from 2006). Besty was accompanied by her calf and the fourth individual was a sub-adult. With the local dolphins having been elusive for much of the last few months, it was pleasing to enjoy these four showing off in the calm waters around Kisite Island. The calf in particular seemed to be in playful mood, posing for the camera with ’spyhops’ – holding the head vertically out of the water.

 Nene with Besty’s calf spyhopping

No turtles on the transect, but the day was far from disappointing and seeing Besty again is like meeting up with an old friend.