Latest News

NMMF welcomed Congressman Joe Cunningham and NOAA’s NOS Acting Assistant Administrator Nicole LeBoeuf as panelists at our sold out Charleston, SC screening of Dispatches from the Gulf 2. We had a dynamic discussion about the lessons learned from the DWH catastrophe and the effects of oil exposure on dolphins. Mayor John Tecklenburg joined the event as we … Read more

We first reported on dolphin YV7 last year in a post titled “Entangled Bottlenose Dolphin Rescued in Barataria Bay Recap”.  Fishing gear was cut loose from around her head in September of 2017 during a routine capture-release health assessment in Barataria Bay. Every year, CARMMHA researchers return to monitor pregnant females and document those that … Read more

Researchers from multiple consortia within the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) have proposed a new approach for monitoring the populations of whales and dolphin that live in the offshore waters of the Gulf.  The new program would be based on using a network of underwater recorders to listen for the sounds they produce and … Read more

From June 18-20, members of the CARMMHA research team met at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago to discuss preliminary findings from last year’s field efforts. Drs. Randall Wells and Kathleen Colegrove hosted the meeting in the Great Bear Wilderness classroom, where we were occasionally joined by Hudson the polar bear (a marine mammal!) watching our … Read more

Protecting Our Marine Mammals: Manatees, Dolphins and Whales Gulf Shores Cultural Center, University of South Alabama, Gulf Coast Campus, Annual Distinguished Lecture Series More than 50 local residents attended the USA Gulf Coast Campus Distinguished Lecture by CARMMHA Co-PI, Dr. Ruth H. Carmichael in January.  Attendees learned about the threats to marine mammals in northern … Read more

During 2018, the CARMMHA team and our collaborators successfully and safely captured, satellite tagged, and released 39 dolphins (20 in Barataria Bay, LA and 19 in the waters around Dauphin Island, AL). The 20 dolphins tagged in Barataria Bay provided information that complimented much of what we know about dolphin movements from the previous 65 … Read more

The one-day sampling cruise in Mobile Bay coupled CARMMHA data collection with a field experience for Dr. Carmichael’s undergraduate Marine Invertebrate Zoology class. Summers on Dauphin Island always seem to be a bit busier than other Gulf Coast beach destinations, with the research and educational activities of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) adding to … Read more

CARMMHA hosted its first Dolphin Health Educational Workshop at the Girl Scout Headquarters in San Diego, CA! CARMMHA scientists and educators reached over 40 girls along with their parents from around San Diego at our very first Dolphin Health Workshop. The workshop began with a brief presentation on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its effect … Read more

In addition to collecting ultrasound images, echocardiography, and blood/tissue samples, our field biologists use the capture-release opportunities to attach satellite tags to some of the animals.