ABOUT THE SPECIES
Dolphins are highly intelligent air breathing marine mammals. Much loved and admired, they are actually an apex predator with fantastic abilities to adapt to a wide range of environments developing food gathering and communication capabilities accordingly. They are fast and long lived and have echolocation abilities similar to bats, using sound as their major sense even though they have excellent eyesight. Dolphins are fun loving, playful and also sentient, showing the same range of emotions as humans. They are endangered through human activities like fisheries by-catch and overfishing depleting prey stocks. Anthropogenic sound and habitat degradation impacts are major issues. Image courtesy of Peter Fuller.
ABOUT THE ORGANISATION
Dolphin Watch is a longitudinal Citizen Science volunteer project in partnership with Whale and Dolphin Conservation, monitoring dolphin populations in South Australia, on Kangaroo Island since 2005 and Victor Harbor since 2011. Encouraging custodianship of these fascinating creatures, dolphins are monitored unobtrusively, minimising impacts and behavioural change, collecting baseline data on movements and habitats to inform management and conservation. Dedicated volunteers of all ages collaborate with scientists on surveys on Ecotourism vessels: Kangaroo Island Marine Adventures and The Big Duck Boat Tours, Victor Harbor, plus land-based monitoring. Images and videos identify individual dolphins through distinctive dorsal fins and body markings.
Vote for the Common bottlenose dolphin via the Vote page here.