Every existing diving record for dolphins was broken on June 6 when Bermudiana, one of three wild dolphins fitted with satellite tags by field biologists, travelled to depths exceeding 600 metres (1,950 feet) in waters off the island. The satellite tracking tags, which are attached to the dolphins' dorsal fins, are designed to detach after three to four months of delivering location and depth data. Chip, the second of the dolphin trio, accompanied Bermudiana on a week-long journey to 124 miles northeast of Bermuda. Previous studies of wild dolphins focused on shallow water and near-shore populations, but these record-shattering incidents prove that dolphins are significantly deeper divers and swimmers than scientists were previously led to believe. In the meantime, Leigh Klatsky, field leader for the Bermuda Wild Dolphin Tracking Project, spoke to the News about why the recent activities of Chip, Bermudiana, and JD were so remarkable.

"There's a lot of information we don't know about "There's a lot of information we don't know about dolphins," Ms Klatsky said. "Most of the information we have is from coastal animals, who only live in pretty shallow waters, say, ten to 15 metres. This is the first project to actually record the diving of these animals. "Initially, three years ago, when we first did the project, they were surprising us by going beyond 500 metres, because the tags that we used back then only recorded up to 500 metres." However, things change ñ technology in particular. "This time around, we got tags that could obviously record deeper, and they're surprising us again by making dives greater than 600 metres. We can determine that (the dolphins) are making dives between 600-700 metres, which is just about a third of a mile, so this is a big surprise to us as well. They're going much deeper than anyone perceived they would be going. I mean, they're lasting up to 11 minutes, which is another big surprise to us."

When asked how long a dolphin usually remains underwater, Ms Klatsky said: "That depends on what they're doing down there. If they're diving and searching for food, they could be diving for a longer period of time. For coastal animals, I'd guess probably up to five minutes or so, but we're seeing dolphins diving up to 11 minutes, which again is a lot longer than we were expecting." As far as previous diving records for dolphins go, scientists don't have that much to go on. "There is a record of a trained animal that was in human care back in the 1960s. I think it was part of a US Navy project; they trained it to dive down as deep as it could, then come back up. He went down to about 536 metres. That's an animal being instructed to dive down as deep as it can go. "So, we realised before that they could go that deep, but to be able to study the wild animals and see how far they're going, this is something that hasn't been tested before. What's important to know is that it was a trained animal doing that, it wasn't normal behaviour."

"I think we're establishing new insight into this ecotype of a species, considered to be the offshore animals, which have not been studied before," she said. "We're really working in uncharted territory, because no one has been able to examine these offshore animals like we are. We're thrilled at the information that we're collecting, and there's so much more we can look forward to study."

As for the current status of the dolphins, "We still have one animal transmitting (JD, one of the trio), and he will be going on a month on Friday. We're thrilled with the information we've received from Chip and Bermudiana as well. I believe Bermudiana's tag has fallen off, and Chip's too, because the way the data was coming in made me believe that the tags fell off which they're meant to do."

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For years, scientists assumed that humans were the only beings smart enough to use tools. Then biologists learned that chimps catch insects with sticks and otters open shells with rocks.

Dodger, a 2-year-old female dolphin, uses a sponge on its snout while searching the sea floor for food. Now a new study shows that certain bottlenose dolphins in western Australia are teaching their offspring to use tools as well, according to a study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Looking like undersea clowns, the dolphins stick sea sponges on the tips of their snouts while rooting around the ocean floor for animals hiding in the sand, says the paper's lead author, Michael Kr¸tzen, senior lecturer at the Anthropological Institute and Museum at the University of Zurich. But the dolphins, though known for their playfulness, aren't out for a laugh: They might be trying to protect their sensitive skin from hidden dangers in the sand, such as poisonous stonefish.

"Wearing a protective sponge glove might help them get prey items that they otherwise wouldn't be able to get," Kr¸tzen said from Switzerland.

Though animals commonly teach their young how to hunt or build nests, those behaviors are also instinctive, Kr¸tzen says. His analysis, however, shows that the dolphins appear to have learned how to use sponges in what could be the first example of marine mammals passing on "material culture," or the use of tools, to younger generations.

Experts say dolphins have good reason to protect themselves while foraging in the sea. Scientists have found dead dolphins that were pierced by stingrays, says Aleta Hohn, a marine mammal specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She wonders whether the sea sponges also might protect dolphins from these types of threats.

But not all dolphins in this area of Australia, called Shark Bay, use tools.

Interestingly, genetic tests show that all the "spongers" are related, descendents of one particularly clever gal who lived relatively recently, although Kr¸tzen says he doesn't know exactly how long ago she inhabited these waters. Dolphin calves learn a lot from their mothers and typically spend three to five years with them, Hohn says.

Male dolphins in Shark Bay show little interest in tools. Almost all of the "spongers" are females, perhaps because sponging appears to be a solitary pursuit, and females tend to spend more time alone.

Males, on the other hand, form small groups and expend most of their energy looking for ladies, Kr¸tzen says. "They wouldn't have time to chase females and spend a lot of time sponging."

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Florida's Upper Keys – Great Scuba Diving and Eco Friendly Tours

Key West is the most far reaching Key, and a very familiar destination to countless travelers. Somewhat less talked about, but no less stirring, are the upper Keys. The upper Keys include the towns of Key Largo, Tavernier, Ocean Reef, Plantation Key, Long Key, Lower Matecumbe, and Islamorada.

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