Meet the Team: Executive Assistant Melissa Infante
Melissa grew up in South Florida and always had a passion for the outdoors and animals, spending much of her days surfing and riding horses. In 2015, she was looking for a career change and for something with a sense of purpose. She saw the ad on Craigslist for an
2020 Field Season: Trip 1
As I am sure everyone is experiencing the impact of COVID-19 in some capacity, we are experiencing the same here at WDP. This pandemic has wreaked havoc on our summer field season. We are starting two months late, and unfortunately some people have had to cancel their trips with us
Florida Keys Charter
The reefs along the Keys, especially the protected National Marine Sanctuary, are still in good shape. Over the days we explored various reefs, both inshore and near the offshore edge, including...
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