dolphins up close
Hi Unis! I hope you’re all having a fantastic summer. My summer has been filled with beach, ocean, and plenty of dolphins – just the way I like it! I started my summer doing field work in Sarasota, FL. An amazing group of researchers based out of Mote Marine Lab there carries out an annual health assessment of their local bottlenose dolphin population, and because my PhD research involves studying the genetic susceptibility of these animals to toxic red tides, I got to help out this year. A dolphin health assessment is no easy task. Our goal is to capture live dolphins, bring them up on a boat, run full vet exams on them and collect as many biological samples as we can, and then successfully release them again. While this may seem nearly impossible if you know anything about how big and fast these animals are, the team at Mote has been conducting this project for many years and has the process perfected so that its safe for all dolphins and humans involved.
This task involves 8 boats and over 40 people out on the water everyday for a week. One boat is responsible for driving a net around the dolphins; several fast motor boats filled with big strong guys are responsible for getting to the net as quickly as possible and getting their people in the water to get the dolphin under control; one boat is set up for the veterinary exams; and lastly, my boat was the sample processing boat which contained all the kits and equipment needed to collect the various biological samples (including vials with Duke-Cammen labels! Small skin samples were taken for my genetics analysis). Lucky for me, our boat tied directly up the vet boat so I got to see the dolphins up close and watch the vets do their work. A couple times I even got to jump over to the vet boat and help hold the dolphins as they did their exams. The dolphins are surprisingly calm throughout the entire procedure.
My week in Florida was unforgettable. I met many new people in the marine mammal field and made great connections with researchers I hope to work with in the future. I also came home with a set of dolphin tissue samples and got in the lab as soon as I could to work on those. Being part of a dolphin health assessment is an amazing experience, and I couldn’t have asked for any better way to start my PhD research. I wish I could show you pictures of all of this, but unfortunately we’re asked not to post our pictures online because of research permit limits. Instead, I’ve attached a picture of a bottlenose dolphin that a student took on a trip out from the Duke Marine Lab with the Marine Mammals class that I’m TA-ing this summer. Enjoy!
-Kristina
