Meet the Team: Field Assistant, Liah McPherson
Growing up in the Outer Banks, Liah always had a passion for the ocean, but in particular, dolphins. Clearly driven from a young age, she began volunteering with the Outer Banks Center for Dolphin Research in middle school. “My parents have always been supportive of my passion and saved many
Careers in Ocean Science: Education Specialist, Hannah MacDonald
Careers in Ocean Science: Education Specialist, Hannah MacDonald Introduction: At the age of 20, Hannah MacDonald was the youngest woman in a team of women that dove a historic site in each one of the five great lakes in 24 hours. “This feat was to empower women divers and bring
What is Synchrony and Why Does it Matter?
In the wild, the ability for social animals to work together is crucial for survival. And as it turns out, in spotted dolphins, not only do they work together but they also synchronize their behaviors. In the Bahamas, spotted dolphins and bottlenose dolphins both live on the shallow sandbanks. While
QandA with Biologist Cassie Volker
Hi everyone! We hope you enjoyed our LIVE Facebook Question and Answer session with our biologist Cassie Volker. We decided to turn that session into a blog, as a permanent resource. As a refresher, the Wild Dolphin Project was started by Dr. Denise Herzing in 1985. Along with her colleagues,
More than Spotted Dolphins…
False killer whales, sperm whales, pilot whales, offshore bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins —these are just a few of the amazing marine mammals we’ve seen when crossing from Florida to the Bahamas to research the resident dolphins in our study site. Surprisingly, however, little is known about mammals in this region
Offshore and Nearshore Bottlenose Dolphins – What’s the Difference?
In the Bahamas, we study two species dolphins at our field site: the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenalla frontalis) and the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). These are both members of the family Delphinidae, the oceanic dolphins. We spend a lot of our time focusing on the spotteds, but in this
Feeding Frenzy
Editor’s Note: This blog originally followed Thanksgiving, but we had a website crash and lost the entire blog, which had to be rewritten! So, if you missed it the first time…here it is again. We’re talking about FEEDING — an important part of survival! More specifically, we’re talking about dolphin
Looking Back on 2019
As 2019 comes to an end, we decided to reflect back on our year at the Wild Dolphin Project. It was a season filled with good weather, amazing dolphin behavior and unique sightings of marine life, including whale sharks and sperm whales! For the 2019 field season, we had 69
Fall is baby season for dolphins!
All summer long we observe wild dolphins in the Bahamas — and some of those dolphins are pregnant. Based on long-term observation of individuals, Denise Herzing, founder and research director of the Wild Dolphin Project, determined that female Atlantic spotted dolphins have two peak calving seasons in early spring and
2019 Field Season: Trip 7, 8, 9
End of Season Blog – A challenging end to our field season. After a spectacular season of trips and data collection during May, June and July, our August trips were challenged by weather and other issues. We escaped the brunt of Hurricane Dorian but with the approaching storm we ended