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Brian Balmer, MS, Research Associate (SDRP)/ PhD Student (University of North Carolina, Wilmington)
I am a research associate with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP) as well as a PhD student in marine biology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW). I have always been interested in why animals live where they do and how many animals can live in a particular habitat. These questions have directed my research interests beginning with my undergraduate thesis at Virginia Tech, identifying site-fidelity of black bear den re-use in southwestern Virginia. Both my Master’s of Science in biology (completed in ’07) and current PhD research are directed towards determining bottlenose dolphin stock structure along the Florida Panhandle and coast of Georgia through radio-tracking and photo-identification methods. I am also interested in design and implementation of a remote radio-tag attachment system for small cetaceans. My other duties with SDRP include processing of samples obtained during capture-release health assessments, follow-up monitoring of rehabilitated cetaceans, and biopsy darting bottlenose dolphins along the Gulf coast of Florida for genetics and contaminant samples.
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