File:Coast watch (1979) (20473502739).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_14 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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SEA SCIENCE Miclmel Halmiiiski Scott D. Taylor
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Bill Foster ofHatteras attests that dolphins are attracted to commercial fishing vessels. Kim Urian reviews slides to identify individual dolphins. "This project is an example of what FRG does best," Read says, "having government, fishermen and researchers working together to solve a common problem." For Foster, the project was an opportunity to confirm what he had witnessed about bottlenose dolphin abundance and to contribute data to help guide fishery management. WHY STUDY THE BOTTLENOSE? People find bottlenose dolphins inherently fascinating. With brains nearly as large as human brains, the bottlenose is, by our standards, very intelligent. Easily trainable, they are the species most often seen in oceanariums. With large, wide-set eyes, a mouth seemingly set in a perpetual smile and a propensity for graceful gymnastics, dolphins just enthrall us. And we fancy they like us, too. Since the Greek god Apollo became a hero at sea by assuming the form of a dolphin, legends have persisted about the animals guiding ships to safety. Pragmatist Foster calls such romantic notions "the Flipper view," from the once- popular TV show whose star was a bottlenose. Sublirninally, the show may have given an unintentional nod to the animal's relationship to horses by having Flipper give the occasional ride to humans. Read says dolphins descended from land mammals, some of whom returned to the sea 50 to 55 million years ago. Those remaining on land evolved into ungulates, a group that includes hippos, cows and horses. But our fascination for dolphins is not the most pressing reason for a study on species abundance. Dolphins face dangers that present unique management problems. Foster personally attests that dolphins are attracted to fishing boats — a fatal attraction when they get tangled in gear and drown, he says. In fact, Foster says he has seen what he believes is a change in dolphin behavior over the last 10 years or so, with more approaching boats looking for food. He attributes this to people feeding dolphins, a practice now illegal under the Marine Mammal Protection Act Managing fishing activities in areas of dolphin concentrations is a major reason for studying abundance of the animal. Results from this photo-ID study indicate that some of our assumptions about dolphin populations may have been wrong. THE QUESTION OF ABUNDANCE Coastal visitors and residents became alarmed when, in 1987 and 1988, bottlenose dolphins began washing up on shores all along the eastern United States. "We tend to think of these animals as ecological sentinels," Read says, and people began worrying about water quality and whether there was a danger to humans. The die-off was determined to be the result of a morbillivims, which is similar to distemper in dogs and is not a danger to humans. The damage to dolphins was deemed great, however. By some estimates, 50 percent of the bottlenose dolphin population of the eastern shore was lost to the vims, and the species was listed as depleted in the federal Marine Mammals Protection Act. Yet Foster notes that in years since the die- off, "to people living up and down the coast, it looked like as many (dolphins) as ever." The problem according to Read, is that there was a lack of good surveys before the die- off, so there was "a lot of uncertainty about the 28 SUMMER 2001

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