During the month of July BMMRO ran two whale camps for Bahamian youth. These camps were organised and run in collaboration with the Young Bahamian Marine Explorers group (YME) led by Nikita Shiel-Rolle.

The first whale camp included children from Guana Cay, Hope Town and Sandy Point in Abaco, as well as Nassau, ranging in age from 11 to 17 years old. The second camp included children from the Berry Islands, Sandy Point and Nassau, with ages from 14 years old and upwards.

During the two camps, the children were lucky enough to see Blainville's beaked whales, sperm whales, common bottlenose dolphins and Fraser's dolphins. Fraser's dolphins have only been reported in the Bahamas twice before!

The campers took part in field work and lab work, entering data and doing some initial analysis of data including matching photo-identification photographs of dolphins to a catalogue of known individuals, and listening to acoustic recordings for dolphin whistles and clicks. They also undertook marine mammal conservation projects that they presented to the BMMRO staff on their last night. In addition, they presented a detailed explanation of all the marine mammal species found in the Bahamas to the Sandy Point Environmental Camp (SPEC).

One of the conservation topics was about the pros and cons of marine mammals in captivity, and using creative communication, Regina Hepburn wrote this poem:

I am lost with no home
Taken away into this strange zone
Keep on swimming out and am back again
Different faces
Different people same species
But we are not equal
It's hard to share my feelings with people around me because the people that take care of me can't understand me
My family is gone living here from dust to dawn
I guess we just have to carry on
Being fed but not eating
Being sick but not weaken'd
Reproducing but not loving
Nursing but not caring
My stress is building up and up until I'm down

Some of my friends like it
No search for food, mates or shelter
So what if a storm comes
We're safe so what if there's an oil spill we're safe
Diseases we have medicine
But facts are facts living here is like traps
Being fed fish around the clock our work never stops
Gaining weight because lack of excercise is hard
To be a marine mammal in captivity is to survive

BMMRO and YBMS would like to thank those organisations who helped to fund these whale camps; Bahamas Ferries, Abaco's Rotary Club and Friends of the Environment.