GVI Kenya

Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, bottlenose dolphins | Date: Aug 11 2009 | By: gvikenya

Today, our marine team piled onto a tourist Dhow to continue the research we’ve started with them.  We are mainly looking at the routes the dhows are taking, where they get their sightings, how many other dhows are at each sighting and how the animals behave and react to them.  Emily, tells us how the day went;

We boarded Aqua and waited for our “subjects” to come on board. Eventually our boat was filled with 2 Swedish families who were both here for 6 months to adopt their children and 2 Dutch couples on holiday.  After a brief introduction of GVI and our dolphin research methods, we set off in search of dolphins:  Absolute record breaking! Dolphins appeared 2 minutes into the trip! I hadn’t even managed to write the date on to the log form yet! 8 dorsal fins were slowly bobbing up and down in a docile fashion.  It was all excitement on board, kids pointing fingers, adults pointing cameras, Ines pointing at the dorsal fins and immediately identifying the species/age and even their catalogue number. 

 Data collection in the sun

Several of them had perfectly shaped dorsal fins, so undamaged that they could only have been juveniles; a couple of them had distinguishable chips and marks that enabled us to recognise them as the “regulars”.  #027 was spotted (“Melika”). He swam around our boat, surfaced for air a few times and characteristically dove down for a minute or so as dolphins do with the juveniles following one by one; beautifully synchronised, breathing through their blow holes, backs and fins glistening in the sun. A couple more boats arrived and the dolphins lingered on. We left them in peace after 20 min and headed to Kisite Island for spot of snorkelling.

 No. 27 - “Melika”

We mingled with our multi-national guests; Steph showing the kids laminated photos of dolphins explaining their behaviours; Ines sign languaging the direction of Kisite Island to me behind the Dutch as I, in turn, looked very knowledgeable about the geography of the local area.  We arrived in no time and everyone stripped to their swim gear and jumped in with snorkels.  It was low tide and as I gently put my foot, something wriggled under my foot that felt far smoother than sand. I put my head under and saw a blue-spotted stingray burying itself in the sand in a huff: Whoops! Sorry! The water was clear and the entire cast of ‘Finding Nemo’ was there, plus all the extras who didn’t make it into the final cut, chomping on the brightly coloured corals.

 Kisite Island

After a small snack of coconut, bananas and biscuits on the boat, we headed to Wasini for some lunch.  We sat down at a table with flowers scattered all over it. A beautiful steamed crab was placed in front of us along with coconut rice, vegetables, seaweed, chapattis and an assortment of fish! Well worth $8!

We got the tourists to fill out questionnaires before getting picked up by Bardan, our very own research vessel, and headed home.

Tags: catalogue, data collection, dolphin research, kisite island, kisite-mpunguit marine protected area, snorkelling, tourist, tourist dhow

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