My Life as a Trainer

The first thing I want you to know about me is that I LOVE being a trainer! I love marine mammals, and I have a special passion to help educate people about them. When the public connects to the animals I help to train, this raises consciousness about the health of the world’s oceans, and this helps all marine life.

Training is all about communication, being clear and precise. Good training is also motivation and fun! Highly intelligent animals are very motivated to be mentally and physically challenged, and it a very important part of designing a healthy life style for them.

What I love most is the “aha” moment. This is that moment when an animal gets what you want him or her to do through successive approximations: training steps that lead to the goal behavior. When the animal does it for the first time, it is so incredibly rewarding to share that moment of understanding between the two of you. That “aha” moment, priceless! Of course this process can take minutes or even months, depending on the animal and what you are training him or her to do.

Dolphins, in particular, are very motivated to learn new things. It’s great for their mental as well as physical stimulation.

Dolphin Photo Identification Explained

from Sarasota Dolphin Research Program by Blair Irvine

Individual bottlenose dolphins can be identified by their dorsal fins. But how exactly is that done? And why bother?

A new report published by NOAA, with SDRP staff members Brian Balmer and Randy Wells as co-authors, explores the use of photo identification as a tool for making abundance estimates of inshore populations of bottlenose dolphins.
Abundance estimates are critical for dolphin stock assessments along the Atlantic Coast and the Northern Gulf of Mexico, because they inform management policy decisions.
You can’t manage the conservation a dolphin population unless you know how many dolphins there are. Right?

Brookfield Zoo dolphin about to give birth

More at ABCLocal

SDRP Veternarian is Finalist for Fellowship

from Sarasota Dolphin Research Program by Blair Irvine

Deborah Fauquier, DVM, has been named as a finalist for a prestigious Marine Policy Fellowship offered by the National Sea Grant College Program.

Deb, is already a marine mammal veternarian, and she led the vet team during the 2010 dolphin health assessments in Sarasota Bay. Read more about her life as a marine mammal vet below.

Currently completing her PhD in Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Deb’s dissertation research investigated the effects of brevetoxin on sea birds in Sarasota Bay, Florida.

Saving the Franciscana Dolphin

from Sarasota Dolphin Research Program by Blair Irvine

 

Changing fishing techniques, or using gillnets that reflect dolphin sonar may be the best bets to saving the endangered Franciscana dolphin in coastal Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

The greatest threat to the Franciscana dolphin is accidentally getting entangled and drowned in fishing nets.

Research has shown that long-lining for fish is actually more profitable than using traditional gillnets in Argentina, but more work is needed in other areas.
Another solution involves use of a new type of gillnet that is more likely to reflect dolphin sonar. This net may help reduce the mortality, by warning the dolphins of the net’s presence (assuming the dolphins are using their sonar at the right time).
But funding is scarce, and efforts to change the traditional ways of fishing are time and labor intensive. Change is not easy.

Sighting in Penzance was a dwarf sperm whale

13 October 2011 Last updated at 06:48 ET

A marine research charity has confirmed a small whale spotted near Penzance was a dwarf sperm whale. The animal, little more than the size of a porpoise, swam into Mounts Bay, in west Cornwall, on Sunday. Dr Peter Evans, Director of Sea Watch, said the species had never previously been recorded off the UK coast.

The confirmation means that 29 species of cetaceans have now been recorded in UK and Irish waters. Scientists know little about the whale. The whale was spotted on the beach and the sighting then reported to the coastguard and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust strandings officer, Jan Loveridge. A member of the public then managed to re-float the animal, which subsequently swam away. Dr Peter Evans said: "Pictures of the Penzance whale show it to be dwarf sperm whale, its fin being large and almost triangular.
"This species has been recorded on only a handful of occasions in Europe, including Spain and France, and never in Britain or Ireland. "It is just one of the increasing number of records of warm water species to be turning up around the British Isles in recent years."

So little is known about the dwarf sperm whale, that it is listed as 'data deficient' on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Source: BBC
More about dwarf sperm whales

Brazil Tagging Trip A Success

from Sarasota Dolphin Research Program by Blair Irvine

 5 endangered Franciscana dolphins were captured, tagged and released, by a tri-national team of veterinarians and conservation scientists in Babitonga Bay, Brazil.

The dolphins are being tracked with satellite-linked transmitters to learn about their activities, dive patterns, and range in Southern Brazil.

This is important new information because Franciscana dolphins are threatened by coastal development, pollution, and gillnets, but little is known about their movements. Learning about their movements will allow conservationists and policy makers make plans for their protection.

SDRP Researchers Assist with Oil Spill-Health Assessment

from Sarasota Dolphin Research Program by Blair Irvine

 

NOAA recently completed a dolphin health assessment project in Barataria Bay, LA, examining and sampling dolphins for possible sub-lethal effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on bottlenose dolphins.

A team of about 50 veterinarians, biologists and wildlife epidemiologists worked together to conduct the comprehensive health evaluations.
SDRP Director Randy Wells is a co-investigator on the project. SDRP staff members Brian Balmer, Jason Allen and Aaron Barleycorn were also part of the team, as were a number of medical and veterinary researchers who collaborate with the SDRP in our Sarasota Bay research.

Great White Shark - on view at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

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