None — Channel 2's Linda Stouffer traveled to the Atlantic Coast to shoot "Dolphins: Georgia's Breakthrough Discoveries". This is her first-hand account of the experience which you can see on WSB-TV on Sunday June 27 at 7 p.m.
We stood on the boat, scanning the water for a gentle circle of waves… listening for the quiet pop of breath. Dolphins need to surface for air… and once you are near one, it's only a matter of time before they rise up again.
So we wait. And once I heard that resonant breath kind of noise… I couldn't wait for the next one.
For me- it's awesome to see the wild creature glide up and then disappear again. Sometimes one dolphin, sometimes two, even a mother and calf. Beautiful.
For the experts- the actual noise of the breath from the blowhole… how fast it is, how clear it sounds, tells biologists if the animal is in distress. In a flash, they can see if the pectoral fin shows damage, or if there are any obvious signs of health problems.
And we are with these scientists because they are uncovering more health problems with Atlantic bottlenose dolphins off the southeast coast. In studies near Florida and South Carolina, researchers are finding increasing pollutants (like flame retardants) and sickness (like cancer and anti-biotic resistant bacteria) in the wild dolphin populations.
This day, we were on the Intracoastal Waterway in the boat with researchers from the Georgia Aquarium and the Dolphin Conservation Field Station. It's a new project that fulfills one of the overall goals of Aquarium founder, Bernie Marcus: serious scientific marine research.
The Dolphin Conservation Field Station is near Saint Augustine, Florida. It's a joint project with Marineland, now owned by the Atlanta based Jacoby Group.
It all makes for an interesting mix: Marineland claims to be the world's the first Oceanarium . Marineland's dolphins are all captive-born, raised and trained to be comfortable with humans. They get high-tech ultrasounds during health check-ups, they swim in filtered water.
They do these gravity-defying jumps on cue. People (like lucky me!) get to experience them in the water. My favorite moment was when a young dolphin swam up with a float in his mouth, to start a game of fetch.
But the aim of the Conservation Field Station is to protect and benefit the wild dolphins that make the Atlantic Ocean and the inland waterways their home. Atlantic bottlenose dolphins are federally protected, which means hunting or harassing them is prohibited.
The researchers on the boat take photos, which they will build into a health database. And while at first glance, the animals look so similar to me, the biologists spot immediate differences in color and condition. I'm told at another photo tracking location- the scientists get to the point they know all the area dolphins by sight and even have names for them.
As the Florida teams get to know these dolphins, they will build individual health records, to document changes. It's easy to see why people love dolphins- intelligent, social, and graceful in the water.
And it's also easy to understand why the Georgia Aquarium's Senior Vice President and Chief Veterinarian is troubled. Dr Greg Bossart, says, "I think we're coming to the point where… we're starting to see changes in these animals health that are going to drive them right over the edge."
The Indian River Lagoon, FL, Health and Risk Assessment of Bottlenose Dolphin Project (HERA) is a collaborative project based at and funded by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) at Florida Atlantic University in Ft. Pierce, FL (www.hboi.fau.edu).
Tissues from free-ranging dolphins were collected under National Marine Fisheries Service Scientific Research Permit No. 998-1678. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University "Protect Florida Dolphin" program and NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program supported this work."