Saving Abaco's Dolphins after Hurricane Dorian

The effects of extreme climatic events (ECEs) on ecosystems and wildlife populations are poorly understood because predicting the timing, intensity, and location of these rare events is too difficult. As such, when ECEs occur in areas where long-term monitoring of flora and fauna exists, it is important to document these events and their impacts. On September 1st, 2019, hurricane Dorian hit Marsh Harbour, Abaco, and surrounding communities as the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in the Atlantic. As some of the largest marine fauna and top predators in Abaco’s nearshore ecosystems, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are expected to have been impacted both directly and indirectly by hurricane Dorian.

In May and again in August this year, we carried out dedicated dolphin surveys in the Sea of Abaco. Across 16 encounters, many included mother-calf pairs which is an encouraging indication of the resilience of this local population following hurricane Dorian. It is critical that we continue to monitor the health status of these young dolphins as we know that calf mortality is high in the Sea of Abaco. Alongside photo-ID work, we deployed and retrieved our acoustic recorders that are tracking ambient noise (boat engines mostly) and its impacts on dolphin presence.

Links:

• Acoustic recorder retrieval last week