(Published on HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com http://hamptonroads.com)
Volunteers helping count dolphins for Virginia Aquarium
By Melanie Barker
Correspondent
OCEANFRONT
Some people count sheep. These people count dolphins.
Almost 50 volunteers from the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center staked out the Virginia Beach coastlineJuly 30 for the aquarium's 19th annual dolphin count.
Armed with binoculars and clipboards, the volunteers recorded the number of dolphins they saw between 8 a.m. and noon. They also noted which direction the dolphins were traveling and the presence of newborns.
The dolphin counters worked in teams of two or three, with each team stationed at one of 15 observation posts located about every three miles, from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to the North Carolina state line.
Although the final tally won't be ready for weeks, Mark Swingle, the aquarium's director of research and conservation, said the numbers have been fairly consistent over the past 18 years.
Swingle said previous years' counts have shown that 450 to 500 coastal bottlenose dolphins live in the waters off Virginia Beach during the summer. In the winter, those dolphins migrate south of Cape Hatteras, where the temperatures are warmer and the fish are plentiful.
In summer, the largest concentration of local dolphins is in the Cape Henry area near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Swingle said.
"Dolphins are fish eaters, and the mouth of the bay is rich in sea life," Swingle said. "Also, if the ocean is too rough, they can go into the Bay."
Swingle added that Cape Henry is more conducive to dolphin life than the resort area because it is not as heavily developed.
"Still, we have seen dolphins at every observation point along the coast," Swingle said.
Marcy Fundalewicz was one of the team members stationed at the 15th Street Pier for this year's count.
"We had all the excitement this morning, when six dolphins showed up at 8 a.m.," Fundalewicz said. "But since then, we've only seen two." She theorized that heavy jet-ski activity emerging from nearby Rudee Inlet was keeping the dolphins away.
Working with Fundalewicz was Michael Peele, who grew up in Virginia Beach but now lives in Edenton, N. C.
Peele, who was working his ninth dolphin count, said a major challenge is counting large groups of dolphins in the small amount of time that they surface.
"They're mammals, so they have to come up for air, but sometimes they come up and go right back down," Peele said. "If they're close together in a big group, it's hard to count them all."
Peele and Fundalewicz, like most of the dolphin counters, also volunteer with the aquarium's stranding response program.
Swingle said information gathered from the dolphin counts is used to help manage resources and protect the animals.
"It's another in a long line of research and projects that we do so that we're in a position to comment and make sure the animals are protected when something comes along that may impact their habitat," Swingle said.
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