Last Thursday we took a break from fieldwork and visited the communities of Bocas Torito and Buena Esperanza. It was pouring outside, and we got the wonderful idea of trying to do one survey before the talks...you know, for optimization of time. We ended up soaked and decided to come back to the station to change into dry clothes. Then we picked up Esther, the community leader who organized the protest against a company that wanted to remove dolphins from the bay, and we headed to Bocas Torito. It was a very humble place. We sat on old chairs and tree trunks while chatting with this very interesting crowd of García's. Esther was particularly worried 

about the methods for collecting the biopsies. She thought we were the bad guys (girls in this case) that wanted to anesthetize dolphins to take them away! After a few hours of thought exchange we convinced her, and the rest of the community, that we are only interested in the conservation of this population of dolphins and that it would break our hearts if we ever harm those wonderful creatures. At the end they were happy with us and expressed their concerns regarding the dolphin-watching tourism...they even proposed very drastic ways of taking care of the situation but we decided not to make suggestions...yet.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were intense fieldwork days. We collected data of the behavior of the dolphins when boats were approaching them. Around 10am there were 16 boats following the same 2 dolphins and it was impossible to see them and record them. We counted a total of 31 boats entering and leaving the bay in 1.5 hrs and were always following the same 2 dolphins. 

At one point, one of the boats was traveling very fast when leaving the area and it created a small wave. A smaller boat followed and when the wave reached it, the boat tipped over and started to sink. We were the closest boat so we rushed towards them in the middle of our data collection. The passengers jumped to the water and swam towards us. The other dolphin-watchers came to the rescue of the small boat and luckily managed to tip it back to the right position. Having so many boats in a small area can increase the chances of accidents like the one we experienced that day. Our concern for the tourism chaos in this bay is not only about the dolphins anymore, is about the safety of the tourists that visit Bocas to have a good time and trust their lives to the tour guides. 

After almost a week of fieldwork we still had not seen our favorite and most conspicuous dolphins: Bity and Supermessy. Luckily we saw a huge pod of dolphins on Monday. They surrounded us, jumped, did bow riding and the babies came close to our boat. It was an amazing spectacle full of different behavior displays. Better than any Sea World show! (Sorry guys, but natural behaviors are always the best). So, guess who was there? Bity and Supermessy!! We were so happy to see them! And quite surprised that they were not inside the Dolphin Bay as they were for the past 8 years. The Dolphin Bay is now the Empty Bay. We wonder what would be the implications for the tourism industry in Bocas. What is going to happen with this dolphins? We can only wonder...

Two days of rest... aaaaaahhhhhh :)
Tomorrow we go back to work!

-S