Dolphin Research

I have been splitting my time here at Pacific Whale Foundation between being a naturalist out on the snorkel and whale watching boats and working as an assistant researcher with the research staff. We have been working with sea turtles and odontocetes (toothed whales) like our different dolphin species and false killer whales.
Yesterday we took the research boat out to track down one of the resident pods of spinner dolphins. We found them right off the bat. A few had very distinct notches on their dorsal fin which we can use to photo identify individuals. We even spotted a new born swimming very close to its mother. If you look very close at the top picture you can see the baby spinner dolphin surfacing just on the left side of its mom.
The beautiful blue offshore waters of Maui really do provide the perfect habitat to study offshore marine animals.

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