The Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute (MERR) holds the Annual Dolphin Count this Saturday, as over 100 volunteers fan out along Delaware’s coast. The volunteers record visual dolphin counts and other environmental observations for a couple of hours.
Suzanne Thurman, the MERR Institute’s Executive Director, elaborates.
“We have sites that start at Fenwick Island, our southernmost border, and go all the way along the ocean coast, and then up the Delaware Bay, all the way up to Woodland Beach in Smyrna.”
One of several held nationally throughout the year, Delaware’s count helps to determine the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin population. Marine mammals are experiencing more frequent distress, as evidenced in a recent NPR story detailing recent dolphin and seal deaths along the California coast.
Thurman explains that the count contributes to the overall preservation effort, allowing the Institute to get ahead of problems. “If we notice a drastic decline, let’s say more than one year in a row, then that would trigger us to do a more in-depth study, maybe using aerial surveys and other things involving other entities.”
Thurman added that past observations validate the annual count, held consistently on the third July of the year, and in the same locations along the coast.
“So, for example, in 2013, that was the beginning of a huge die-off of bottle-nosed dolphins, due to a highly-contagious virus, and so, keeping track to see if the population showed signs of diminishing during the count, which it did, for a couple of years.”
MERR’s Annual Dolphin Count is this Saturday. If interested in volunteering, contact MERR at (302)864-0304 or e-mail merrinstitute@gmail.com.
