Monitoring Approaches for Bottlenose Dolphin Restoration in Louisiana
Implementing Organization
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; State of Louisiana
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$641,966
Known Leveraged Funding
$0
Funding Organization
Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (NRDA)
Funding Program
Natural Resource Damage Assessment NRDA
Details
Project Category
Science
Project Actions
Monitoring and Observations
Targeted Resources
Other
Project Description
This project will develop a detailed plan to determine bottlenose dolphin abundance, distribution, and stock structure as well as habitat use in Louisiana, with an emphasis on foraging and prey. It will also develop a plan for quantifying and better characterizing freshwater exposure and effects on bottlenose dolphins in coastal Louisiana. It will also produce a report that synthesizes existing information to characterize direct human caused threats (e.g., fishery bycatch, illegal feeding, gunshots, entrapment, marine debris, etc.), environmental contaminants, and disease. Additionally, it will develop a common framework for assessing risk to bottlenose dolphins in coastal Louisiana, and will produce an implementation training plan. In total, this project will inform future efforts to decrease the impacts of these threats to bottlenose dolphins, and will allow for comparisons between stocks to improve threat assessments and population trend analyses for restoration planning and for monitoring restoration effectiveness.
Contact
Julia Goss(301) 427-8639
julia.goss@noaa.gov
Project Website
None
For official trustee information regarding the Deepwater Horizon NRDA, including information regarding the NRDA process and the status of projects, see https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/