“It’s because I love the dolphins …”
This was the answer given by some of our dolphin ‘spotters’ at the latest CDMP look-out in November, 2014 as to why they spend every second Sunday on windy look-outs. Besides ‘loving dolphins’ other answers were “I’ve always wanted to learn more about them” and “it’s nice meeting up with the other people.”
Volunteers have a wide range of backgrounds, from former teachers, to nurses to students. Everyone is provided with basic training before starting.
As Sue Mason says “One of the really nice outcomes of my PhD work has been the development of our citizen science project, DRI’s Community Dolphin Monitoring P
roject (CDMP). It’s our local community monitoring a local dolphin community.”
Sue will continue to monitor the common dolphins post-PhD as DRI’s Research Officer.
The data gathered by the dedicated volunteers is extremely valuable, as it is providing an on-going “snap-shot” of the bay and its dolphins. CDMP celebrated its first birthday in November; well done and thank you all.
