2018 Research and Conservation Newsletters

Since 2003, Georgia Aquarium’s involvement with HERA, the bottlenose dolphin Health and Environmental Risk Assessment Project, and its conservation efforts with bottlenose dolphins have been nothing but a success. In May 2017, Dr. Gregory Bossart, Georgia Aquarium’s Chief Veterinary Officer and Senior Vice President of Animal Health, Research and Conservation, co-authored and published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, the first study to compare the health assessments of wild dolphins and those in human care. This study found that dolphins in natural habitats are more susceptible to infectious diseases, tumors, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and high levels of contaminants than dolphins in human care. Individuals in zoological facilities are exposed to fewer pathogens as their water and food quality is higher. Dolphins are a sentinel species and understanding them helps researchers understand the health of our oceans.

For the third year, Georgia Aquarium researchers traveled to one of the most remote islands in the world, St. Helena in the South Atlantic. Led by Dr. Alistair Dove, Vice President of Research and Conservation, the team traveled over 6,000 miles with the goal of studying the whale sharks that frequent this area. Georgia Aquarium researchers have made multiple expeditions to St. Helena since 2014, with researchers most recently completing a stint in February 2018. These field expeditions began because researchers believe whale sharks use St. Helena’s waters as mating grounds – something that has never before been documented.

Using techniques discovered in the aquarium setting, researchers from Georgia Aquarium and their partners studied the whale sharks in the waters around St. Helena. This year, they were joined by a crew from Ocean Conservancy focusing on the impacts of marine plastics on and around the island.

Many manatees make their home in the coastal waters of Georgia and Florida. Georgia Aquarium has partnered with Sea to Shore Alliance and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on a project to map the movements of this protected species around Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, near St. Marys, Georgia. The study is documenting migratory paths and habitat use in the region and collecting baseline data to help assess manatee health. Researchers are confirming things they long suspected: the importance of the Intracoastal Waterway, or ICW – a narrow passage of natural and dredged rivers between the mainland and barrier islands – for manatees moving along the Georgia coast. The Intracoastal Waterway is a major thoroughfare for manatees migrating between Georgia and Florida, but the ICW is also a popular waterway for boats path used to travel up and down the coast. Since 2000, boat collisions have caused 27 percent of manatee mortalities documented in Georgia. Understanding manatees’ habitat use and migration details can benefit conservation efforts for the species. The health assessment studies are patterned after the Aquarium’s long-standing bottlenose dolphin Health and Environmental Risk Assessment (HERA) research in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. To learn more about Georgia Aquarium’s manatee health assessment program, please visit:

http://news.georgiaaquarium.org/stories/georgia-health-assessment-project-adds-manatees-gains-insight

Georgia Aquarium veterinary staff traveled to Bahia de Jobos, Puerto Rico last year, to participate in manatee health assessments. Approximately sixty individuals from around a dozen institutions including US Fish and Wildlife and the Puerto Rican Department of Natural and Environmental Resources were on hand for the expedition. Despite uncooperative weather during part of the trip, the team was able to launch their new capture boat and successfully evaluate three animals.

Earlier this year, staff joined the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and members of the SeaWorld Orlando Rescue Team in the rescue of a female sub-adult Atlantic bottlenose dolphin in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. After determining that a rescue and rehabilitation attempt was possible despite the animal’s life-threatening injuries, the decision was made to transport the dolphin to SeaWorld Orlando’s Cetacean Rehabilitation Facility for further evaluation and rehabilitation.

After an initial veterinary exam and treatment, the dolphin was found to have sustained multiple shark bite wounds to her body and right pectoral flipper and had developed pneumonia. The SeaWorld Rescue Team has been providing the dolphin with around-the-clock care as she continues to gain strength and energy. She is now swimming and eating well, and recent examinations have shown that the wounds are healing and the pneumonia is improving. The SeaWorld Rescue Team will continue to provide further treatment and is cautiously optimistic that her condition will continue to improve enough for release in the future.

Georgia Aquarium is proud to support rescue efforts for dolphins and other marine mammals in northeast Florida.

SeaWorld Orlando and Georgia Aquarium Assist Dolphin Attacked by Shark