Education Overview 2006

Intern Goldie Phillips records data while intern Kathrine Marter and volunteer Traci Hedgepath collect environmental data with a YSI device.

Education continues to be a major component of SDRP activities, directed toward the general public, students, colleagues, and wildlife management agencies. We work to educate the general public regarding bottlenose dolphins and conservation issues through 1) public presentations at Brookfield Zoo, Mote Marine Laboratory, and other venues, 2) articles, 3) interviews, and 4) volunteering opportunities through Earthwatch Institute. We also produce books for the general public and students. One of these, "Dolphins, Whales, and Manatees of Florida: A Guide to Sharing Their Waters," by John Reynolds and Randall Wells, was published in 2003 to teach people how to better appreciate and treat marine mammals in their environment. Another, "Dolphin Man: Exploring the World of Dolphins," by Laurence Pringle and Randall Wells, was published in 2002 to provide middle school students with an opportunity to learn about Sarasota Bay's dolphins and about one pathway for becoming a marine biologist engaged in dolphin biology research and conservation.

Intern Vanessa Greenwood learns how to photograph dolphin fins in Charlotte Harbor.

An Immersion Cinema interactive program, "Dolphin Bay," loosely based on our long-term dolphin research and conservation program in Sarasota Bay, is now being aired multiple times daily at Mote Marine Laboratory's 165-seat theater. Participants are able to investigate realistic threats to bottlenose dolphins in the imaginary bay and attempt to resolve those threats by applying field research techniques and performing rescues. The program is designed to entertain as well as educate young people, especially, about the threats faced by coastal dolphins and about possible means available to them for making a positive difference in the dolphins' lives. It tries to present a balanced selection of realistic alternatives. The consequences of the participants' choices on the Dolphin Bay population 50 years hence are estimated using the modeling program "Vortex" (developed by the Chicago Zoological Society's Dr. Robert Lacy).

At the college level, we are fortunate to have access through Mote Marine Laboratory to high quality, dedicated undergraduate student interns who volunteer with our program for at least 3 months at a time (for more information on participation, please contact Andrea Davis at adavis@mote.org). During 2006, 23 interns participated in this program. We also teach college-level marine mammal courses, provide supporting materials for these courses, and continue to host the annual summer MARVET marine mammal veterinary student course.

As described throughout this newsletter, graduate students come to our program primarily through the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of South Florida, and the University of North Carolina, Wilmington to conduct their thesis or dissertation research. To date, 16 doctoral dissertation and 24 master's thesis projects have been conducted in association with our program. During 2006, two master's students (Carter Esch and Colleen Bryan) and four doctoral students (Magali Houde, Mandy Cook, Ester Quintana-Rizzo, and Spencer Fire) successfully defended theses or dissertations; all were based at least in part on data or samples collected through the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.

Our efforts to provide information to our colleagues and wildlife management agencies continue through publication of numerous scientific articles, invited presentations at various scientific conferences, and participation in national/international panels such as the Atlantic Scientific Review Group (R. Wells, member and past-chair), Take Reduction Teams (D. Gannon, member), the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events (R. Wells, chair), the International Whaling Commission Pollution 2000+ Programme (R. Wells, Steering Committee member), the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group (R. Wells, member), and the IUCN Reintroduction Specialist Group (R. Wells, member).