We conducted a 5-day capture-release dolphin health assessment project in Sarasota Bay in May 2011. The primary impetus behind the project was to obtain data and samples to serve as controls for comparison to samples to be collected by NOAA in oil-impacted Barataria Bay, Louisiana in August. An additional goal included training foreign scientists for [...]

Coastal areas where Franciscana dolphins live, such as Babitonga Bay, are highly threatened by coastal development and pollution along in Brazil. The construction of harbors, dredging, and the growth of cities with the associated destruction of coastal ecosystems and industrial and urban pollution, along with boat traffic and noise pollution, have been increasing in recent [...]

Franciscana dolphin: Southern Brazil Signals continued to be received through the end of November from two of the five Franciscana dolphins tagged with satellite-linked tags. The dolphins are exhibiting a very high degree of residency to a very small area within the bay. These highly endangered dolphins were tagged as part of a tri-national (Brazil-Argentina-USA) [...]

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, [...]

SDRP Staff are off to Babitonga Bay, Brazil to tag endangered Franciscana dolphins in a tri-national conservation capacity-building effort. Franciscana dolphins are only found in 3 countries, and this is the first attempt to tag them in Brazil. They are known to be threatened by gillnets throughout their range, but little is known about their [...]

Across 5 days, we caught, examined, and released 15 dolphins. The team included veterinarians, researchers, and volunteers. Goals included training foreign conservation workers and collecting medical samples. The samples will be compared with samples to be collected from dolphins in Louisiana in August 2011, as part of a program to assess possible effects of the [...]

By Martin Mendez, PhD, Columbia University Studying the relationships between environmental heterogeneity and spatial population structure for marine species is fundamental to increase our understanding of marine populations and to enhance conservation strategies. I took on this issue as part of my PhD dissertation, focusing on two coastal cetaceans: Franciscana dolphins in coastal South America, [...]

By Claudia Rocha-Campos, Chico Mendes Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, and Marta Cremer, University of Joinville, Brazil Franciscana dolphins are small marine cetaceans that occur from the Espírito Santo State, in Brazil, to the Province of Chubut, in Argentina, in depths of up to 30 meters. Because of their behavior and cryptic coloration, these dolphins are [...]