Greetings from the Volunteers at
Georgia Aquarium’s Dolphin Conservation Field Station (DCFS) in Florida!
As the new Georgia Aquarium Volunteer kids on the Aquarium block, we wanted to introduce ourselves and let all of you know who we are and what we do at DCFS. We’ve met some Traveling Trevallies and are excited to get to know more of you. Just like the Aquarium, there’s a lot to a Field Station, so we’ll send you information from time to time to help you to get a feel for what it’s like in our neck of the water.
Located in Flagler County, in the town of Marineland, we’re about 100 miles south of the Georgia-Florida state line, with the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Intracoastal Waterway on the west. Flagler is a beautiful part of Florida, in between St Augustine and Daytona Beach with acres of preserved land, a magnificent estuary and wildlife galore (today in a three hour period we saw three humpback whales, many dolphins, a bald eagle and a sun fish!)
One of our key responsibilities is for stranding response and transport of dolphins and small whales in our county. As part of the Southeast Stranding Network, we assist other members of the network as needed, especially to our north along the Florida and Georgia coasts.
A stranding response starts when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC) receives a call on their hotline that a marine mammal is stranded, in distress, or found washed up. FWCC contacts us and away we go! First, an attempt is made to contact the person who called in the report. This is important in order to determine the location and condition of the animal and what equipment and personnel might be needed in our response action. Once an initial determination is made, phone calls go out to the Volunteer team to assist and to the staff veterinarians to be on alert, as well as any needed discussions with NOAA, the Aquarium, or other members of the stranding network. We gather equipment at the station and load it onto our Power Wagon pick up, our transport truck or our skiff, or all three if warranted. If the caller is unsure or not reachable, we’ll drive to the location, make a determination and return to the station for any additional equipment. Then we’ll go into action.
More to come! Hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this!
Cathy, Lead Volunteer
The following are the requirements for Volunteers at DCFS:
- Must be able to volunteer sixteen hours each month.
- Must maintain strict adherence to quarantine requirements: cannot spend any time with any individual who could come into contact with the captive population of dolphins at Marineland. This includes even brief social interaction.
- All potential volunteers must submit a brief summary or resume describing their marine mammal experience. If their background looks like a fit, the candidate is given a face-to-face interview.