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Spend five days as part of the crew of the Research Vessel Tiburon as we gather research images for the Wild Dolphin Project. This expedition provides a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with these wild animals. At the same time, you will contribute to the critical data gathering process that helps catalogue a population of over 420 Atlantic Spotted and Bottlenose dolphin. Observations are made underwater as well as from the surface. This is one of the only places in the world where wild dolphins can be observed underwater with such consistency. |
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Due to these intelligent mammals timidity, all divers on the expedition will be using rebreathers and free-diving equipment exclusively. No bubbles means close interaction! You will be trained on a Drager Dolphin semi-closed circuit rebreather. This unique tool allows researchers the opportunity to view the species without the noise and bubbles of conventional scuba equipment. |
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This is a self-funded expedition, meaning, we all share in the costs through our expedition fees. This project gets no outside funding from NOAA, the Dolphin Research Center, or other government entities. We pay for the right to do this extraordinary work. We each will retain the rights to use our photographs and images for our own purposes but copies of all work product will be collected for Dr. Herzing before field researchers disembark. |
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Our operations will be conducted aboard the Research Vessel Tiburon. This storied vessel is in many senses a modern-day Calypso. R/V Tiburon and her Captian Tim Taylor, most recently brought forth startling documentary evidence to the scientific community regarding America's deepest living coral reef, Pulley Ridge. The R/V Tiburon is not a luxury liveaboard dive vessel. It is a working ship, on the front-lines of many scientific and government projects. The berths are clean and comfortable, the bridge and electronics suite are second to none. The main and dive decks are tidy and well organized to support deep, shallow, scuba and surface supplied diving. During the course of this research cruise, you will enjoy generous helpings of family style fare along with the rest of Tiburon's crew, scientists, and researchers. We all wanted to join Captians Cousteau and Dumas on board Calypso, work with Mike Nelson and work underwater with Flipper and his friends. This cruise is your chance to participate in the glamorous side of marine biology, make a valuable contribution to an established, ongoing project and come home with some great photos and videos. It is truly a rare opportunity to take part in a real life scientific expedition and is not to be missed. On this cruise, the work is its own reward. |
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This expedition is lead by Captian Tim Taylor, Master of the Research Vessel Tiburon. His experience includes 19 years as a US Coast Guard Captain, numerous instructor ratings, underwater still and video expertise and extensive field work. He has hosted many noted marine specialists such as Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Eugenie Clark, Wes Pratt, Frank Goddio, Dr. Robert Ginsburg, Dr. Samuel Gruber, Dr. Sue Hendrickson, Dr. Jeff Carrier and Philippe Cousteau. |
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Captian Taylor will be joined by Dan Nafe, a noted scuba diving educator, decompression specialist, photographer and videographer with over two decades years of experience in these fields. Divers will recognize Mr. Nafe's name as the author of desktop decompression programs such as MigPlan.Mac and Nautilus Dive Planner. He is also the founder of the revolutionary distance learning programs found on Scuba-Training.net |
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Dr. Herzing's tireless work has led to ground- breaking discoveries by accumulating baseline data about the dolphins, their relationships with each other, and their daily lives in the ocean. We are honored to be able to help her by providing another platform from which to collect data and adding many more eyes to spot dolphins. The Wild Dolphin Project research has tracked these dolphin families since 1985 and has developed a knowledge base of complex behaviors, communication signals and ecology. |
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This research expedition will depart from Freeport twice in August and follow the operational schedule listed below.
This operational schedule is a starting point. If the dolphins are observed with an unusual behavior at 0200 in the morning, it will be "All hands on deck, both dive teams, prepare to dive!", and in the water we go! More details will be sent to participants after sign up. This special expediton is limited to EIGHT persons. |
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