We are delighted to announce that we will be part of a book that will be presented by, “The Dolphin’s Voice”, a NGO based in Germany ( https://tdv.ngo/ ). The Dolphin’s voice have the goal to provide education and awareness to the public about cetaceans and the dangers they are facing in today’s oceans. The book will be presented at the festival, “Veggie Vitalis”, a festival showcasing vegan food but also environmental NGOs. A translation of the text can be found below: Beside our scientific research we also concentrate on conservation, especially ecological initiatives and public awareness about the marine mammals and their habitat. Our scientific work is carried out by volunteers, interns and students from all over the world. Montenegro Dolphin Research (MDR) is a long-term project of DMAD (Marine Mammal Research Association), focused on the research of dolphins in Montenegrin waters.The goal is the collection of frequency, abundance and behaviour of the marine mammals. Resulting data will hopefully help to define critical habitats and to understand the repercussions of the biggest threats.Beside our scientific research we also concentrate on conservation, especially ecological initiatives and public awareness about the marine mammals and their habitat. Our scientific work is carried out by volunteers, interns and students from all over the world.Equipped with our boats, instruments and special softwares we assess the area through datacollection on land and boat (meaning on land and boat surveys). We analyse, identify and archive the collected data statistically and use it for further scientific research and conservation strategies.The map on the left shows that the main residency areas of the dolphins are also the ones with the highest density of marine traffic. DMAD – Marine Mammals Research Associationis a non-profit and non-governmental organisation with the goal to create ecological awareness forthe sea and its inhabitants through their activity in research and science.It is our goal to raise awareness in both, the public and scientific field, to identify the habitat problems correlating with the preservation of marine biodiversity in the Levantine and Adriatic Sea.We support the preservation of marine mammals and their habitats through the integration of academic studies, public engagements and campaigns for social sensitisation.

Meet our volunteers: Svenja Capitan Hey, everyone. My name is Svenja, 21, and I am a German biology student in the second year.Nature, its intrinsic mechanisms and interactions is something that has been absolutely fascinating tome since I can remember. Thus, this field of study came as a natural choice.Since I am at the point in my studies now, where a decision about my future focus needs to be made, I hope to get an authentic insight into the work of marine ecologists and conservation work with MDR. Especially getting experience with various softwares, survey technology and the research going into preparations and conservation.It is a pleasure to work with such a diverse group of people, while all sharing the same goal to understand and preserve the beauty of marine mammal life. My main goal is to support them in this effort as much as I possibly can while getting an understanding of the work itself, to act as a basis for the decisions ahead.

18 participants joined the course, of which nine were from Turkey DMAD has successfully completed our first hosting of the ACCOBAMS HQ MMO/PAM operator course in Turkey between the 22nd and 27th of July 2019. Whilst the first four days were dedicated to the theoretical information described in ACCOBAMS protocol, the next two days were designed to cover the practical aspect of it and was conducted in a beautiful sailing boat, sailing through the waters between Marmaris and Fethiye. Additionally, we had two interesting topics on GIS mapping of sightings and stranding first aid information. Overall, 18 participants joined the course, of which nine were from Turkey (in order to increase the local capacity) and each of the participants successfully passed the evaluation test and was awarded with the ACCOBAMS MMO/PAM Operator certificate. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge ACCOBAMS for giving us this chance to improve local capacities, Patrick Lyne for leading the entire course and explaining each topic with a passion for marine conservation, Jonathan Gordon for providing us with the PAM kits for the course and finally to all of our participants for supporting our conservation actions and to sharing their knowledge with us. All the certificated participants are listed below; Amber BeermanAylin Akkaya BasCansu IlkilincCemil Timuçin DinçerDinis GeraldesEmine UlusoyEnorha GuimardErsin BasGiorgia FarneJoao Nuno GoncalvesLiam von WalsumMerve KurtNilüfer Araç GünkarRaquel Soley CalvetTaylan Tolga KökenTim AwberyTürkmen Belen YildirimZeynep Gülenç

”Conservation is a really delicate subject everybody needs to be aware about” Hello everyone! My name is Daniela, I’m a 25 years old girl from Bari, Italy. I graduated in Biology in 2017 and now I’m studying Environmental Biology for my master degree. I’m going to be here in Bar for the next two months, as a part of my thesis but also as a great opportunity for my growth as an individual and as a biologist. I’ve always loved animals and nature so it made perfect sense for me to follow this passion in my study path, and I fall in love with them more and more as I’m going on. I’ve been camping all my life and I’ve always lived by the sea, so I really can’t imagine my life away from it.  I’ve had experience dolphin watching and also a little bit with sea turtles Caretta caretta in Italy, but I really think marine mammals are what I love the most, and here I am, trying to give my contribution studying them and protecting them, while learning all I can from this amazing team. I would love to work in this scientific field in the future, but also to spread as much knowledge as I can amongst people, because ecology needs every single one of us to understand and make some kind of change, and conservation is a really delicate subject everybody needs to be aware about. Think global, act local.

”MDR can allow me to learn and understand how to work in the field of marine biology” I’m Elena Milanesi, I am 22 years old and i come from Milan. I’m at the end of my 3rd year of Environmental Sciences at the University of Milano Bicocca and what fascinates me most is the study of the sea, its preservation and in particularly the conservation of marine vertebrates animals that lives there. I’m here like a volunteer of Montenegro Dolphin Research, because this project can allow me to learn and understand how to work in the field of marine biology, in particularly with marine vertebrates. I’m particularly attracted by the study of conservation and research of marine mammals, like dolphin, for this reason I chose DMAD association, with them I hope to learn to do a lot of things and improve my skills which can be useful for my academic career and above all for my future job.

”I Found Montenegro Dolphin Research. And stars aligned” After working as an interpreter for 9 years I decided to change my life and entered the university again to get my second education in biology. I made this decision after watching Dolphin’s tale movie. In order to obtain some practical knowledge and understand what is day-to-day conservation work I started to look for volunteer projects and found Montenegro Dolphin Research. And stars aligned. This project is such a great and rare opportunity to learn how to actually save marine mammals while still studying; to understand what might my future work be like and to get skills of data analysis used in every research nowadays. Hope to learn as much as possible during my stay in Montenegro and to see some dolphins up close, of course!

“I’m excited to join the Montenegro Dolphin Research team” I’m Xenia, I was born in Russia and grew up in Germany where I used to work as a Biostatistician. I studied Mathematics with biology as a minor subject and since a young age I was fascinated with whales and dolphins. Posters covered my walls and seeing dolphins for the first time in real life; jumping out of the water and following the boat; is still a memorable event. As a way to explore a possible new career path, I’m excited to join the Montenegro Dolphin Research team and looking forward to gaining a better understanding of marine biology and the related tasks and hope my statistical knowledge will be of help analyzing the data. 

Community day – 25th May 2019 DMAD will be having a wonderful beach cleaning event that is full of arts and crafts from recycled materials, face paint, comic colorings and a tale about marine littering. Everyone is invited to Barka Cafe this Saturday to spend some lovely time with us and take action for the awareness regarding our planet. 

GGDS SUMMER 2019! The seasonal offshore expedition of Marine Mammals Research Association will take place on July 2019, in Marmaris, Turkey for this year. If you want to join to this great adventure drop us an email and reserve your spot amongst our team. The survey will cover training and practice that consists of passive acoustic monitoring, sailing techniques, data collection and observation.  For more information about the Giant Guardians of the Deep Seas Research efforts, have a look at our projects here. To apply, please send your CV and cover letter to [email protected]

May 2019 saw the Montenegro Dolphin Research team hosting members of the local community for a community day in our offices in Bar! We would like to thank everyone who came out and joined us to make our community day event so successful! We had a great time with arts and crafts in the morning and some informative presentations throughout the day. Missed out? Don’t worry we will be running more Community Days later in the year with lots more activities!! Keep updated on our facebook page for news of upcoming events.