After all these years, the Dolphin Research Institute is still sometimes asked – what have we actually done and what is our relevance in the 21st century?
We can tick off several achievements easily –
- dolphin swim industry regulations (first in the world and still the bench-mark internationally)
- more than 100 schools around the bays this year with incredibly keen, young marine ambassadors
- three years (and on-going) data of the presence/absence of dolphins in Port Phillip from our citizen scientists volunteers
- data base of dolphin fin ID since the early 2000’s
- graduate students who continue to ‘enthuse’ about marine science after their placement with us.
As well, DRI is developing the National Dolphin Health Plan. A part of this is an exciting new method of measuring dolphin skin health through the mapping of skin lesions on the photographed dolphin. This is still being trialled by DRI’s research team; so far it appears promising.
(Photos from our recent Beach Explorer program).
It’s really great to have a community who has been researching and helping save dolphins for over 25 years and I hope this continues to happen.
Thank you for your kind words.
Jeff