Pupils watch dolphins in real time

by Linda Wilson Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Dolphins cavorting along the coast of southwest Florida delighted passengers on an eco-tour boat Tuesday as students in Crafton and Carnegie elementary schools watched from about 1,000 miles away.

Using modern technology, two teachers in the Carlynton School District have made it possible for their students to see dolphins "live" and in real time.

Susan Kosko at Crafton Elementary and Lori Zimmerman at Carnegie Elementary have set up eco-tours using Skype, software that allows the students to have voice and video communication on the Internet with a boat named The Dolphin Explorer.

When James Livaccari, the ship's captain, appeared on the large white screen in Crafton Elementary School, the children waved enthusiastically. Passengers waved back to the children.

When Mr. Livaccari pointed out brown pelicans and mangrove forests, the students watched intently. They really perked up when he pointed to a patch of rippling water and announced, "I think we have a dolphin sighting!"

On an average day, The Dolphin Explorer sees about three dolphins. On really good days, passengers can see as many as 12 -- coastal bottlenose dolphins, to be precise.

"Watch closely. You don't want to miss this," Mrs. Kosko said.

"I won't even blink!" one little girl responded.

The boat chugged through the water and Mr. Livaccari talked about "a day in the life of a dolphin." But this was one of those days when no dolphins jumped out of the water. The students waved goodbye to the computer screen.

Mrs. Kosko and her family rode The Dolphin Explorer last summer during a vacation to Marco Island, Fla. Her children, Michael, 8, and Nicole, 6, loved it. She wanted her students to have the same joyful -- and educational -- experience.

The dolphins would be a great addition to the science curriculum, but Mrs. Kosko is a reading teacher. She consulted with Mrs. Zimmerman to figure out a way to incorporate dolphins into the reading curriculum.

They settled on having students read and discuss the children's book, "Winter's Tail ... How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again."

About twice a week, they Skype with the boat. Students take notes so they can ask questions and discuss what they saw later. Each student also keeps a Dolphin Journal.

Crafton students have been Skyping since Oct. 17. Carnegie students had their first Skype session on Monday.

"The children were ecstatic," Mrs. Zimmerman said.

Watching the boat and the dolphins gets them excited about a topic and makes them more interested in reading about what they've seen, Mrs. Zimmerman said.

Autumn is the birthing season for dolphins, and in the Crafton reading room is a picture of a dolphin calf born Oct. 1 near Marco Island. Its name is Crafton.

A calf born a few days later is named Carnegie.

Although the Carlynton students have not seen their baby dolphins on Skype yet, they keep looking.

The six-member crew of The Dolphin Explorer has been conducting "The 10,000 Islands Dolphin Project" since 2006, said Chris Desmond, a master mariner who is founder and director of the project. The crew includes three marine biologists, one biologist and a naturalist.

The study includes watching and photographing the dolphins while counting them and monitoring their condition. Results so far indicate the dolphin population there is doing well, Mr. Desmond said.

The people who sign up for the tours are encouraged to help with the project and are given work sheets to keep track of the dolphins.

The Carlynton schools are the first in the country to form a partnership with the project. Mr. Desmond said other schools are making inquiries.

Along 50 miles of Gulf-coast southwest Florida, the project has collected photo IDs of about 300 dolphins, including 82 that Mr. Desmond calls "neighborhood dolphin." Eight of those are calves that are less than a month old.

The dolphins are identified and tracked with photographs of their dorsal fins.

"The fins are like fingerprints. No two are alike," Mr. Desmond said. Fins have nicks and scratches and notches, he explained. The Carlynton students have pictures of dorsal fins, and the dolphins have been given names, including Batman, Kona, Tatoo, Spike and Notch.

He sees his boat tours as an educational experience, starting with teaching the public how to act and interact with dolphins living free in their natural habitat.

"Dolphin are curious, intelligent and they seem to like us," he said. "They swim right up to the boat and circle the boat, especially the calves," Mr. Desmond said. "They are used to our boat and know we won't hurt them."

The dolphins come to the boat even though no one on board feeds them. In fact, feeding wild dolphin is prohibited under the federal Marine Mammals Protection Act.

If people feed dolphins, they would come to depend on people for food and might lose their ability to hunt for the 25 pounds of fish they eat each day, he said. They might also seek out fishing boats and become tangled in nets and hooks.

For information about the study and boat tours: www.dolphinstudy.com and www.dolphin-study.com.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11300/1185181-57.stm