Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Dolphin Census

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CARACAS, Oct 5 2009 (IPS) - With cameras in hand, youths from the environmental group Vida Marina (Marine Life) use boats to track the dolphins in the Caribbean off the coast of the Venezuelan state of Aragua. They are putting together a dolphin database. They focus the camera lenses on the dorsal fins, which serve as a sort of fingerprint to identify the individual cetaceans.

“We are creating a database on the dolphins we observe in the area in order to determine which ones use it as a zone of transit, which ones as their main habitat, and to calculate the populations of the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) and the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus),” Vida Marina researcher Jaime Bolaños told Tierramérica.

The organization hopes its efforts will help create a scientific network that can determine the impact of human activities on the dolphin population. The first catalogue will be ready in late October.