Bottlenose Dolphin Project Volunteer Feedback
Bonnie O'Reilly writes about her experience:
I volunteered for this project in Croatia 2009 & it was the most incredible thing I have experienced. I have been travelling around the world for the past 4 years & this has certainly stood out in my memories. I have always had a huge passion for dolphins & it was always my dream to work with them & help in any way to protect them from a destructive human race. When I discovered the Project in Veli Losinj, Croatia, I sent an email from my home in Australia asking if they needed volunteers. My dream came true when they accepted my position as one of the 5 volunteers, with only one position left available. Within a couple of weeks, I flew from Australia & made my way to the beautiful little harbour of Veli Losinj where I was met by one of the project workers who took me to a gorgeous little house in which I resided for the next fifteen days, along with the other volunteers.
From friends to family we worked together along with our incredible hosts Alena & Grgur to help collect information about the dolphins in the area. We set out on the crystal clear Mediterranean waters almost every day in search of the dolphins on a small little boat where we gathered information to later take back to the Research Centre. We became lucky every time in our search & could barely contain our excitement just from the sighting of these remarkable creatures, while we worked together as a team to collect information such as the number of dolphins spotted & the geographical positioning of them. Photographs were taken to help identify each one & we also performed acoustic monitoring.
On a sad day, when it was too windy to hit the sea to find our flippery friends, we would spend our time in The Research Centre accumulating the information previously collected. We were given the difficult task of identifying the dolphins by matching photographs of their dorsal fins which would hopefully give us a precise number, & name of each dolphin.
I became aware that the Losinj Marine Centre was a very educational place for visitors who would enjoy interactive activities & learn from the vast amount of information displayed.
For me, with or without the dolphins, it was our group of volunteers that really made for a memorable experience. We all got along so well & shared each evening in the house taking turns cooking the meals, sharing laughs & stories while also enjoying a few (or more!) beverages. One night we were lucky enough to enjoy a ´house party´which was the night we invented the Dolphin Dance! Little did we know that we may have created some kind of magic with our dance as the following day turned out to be possibly the most incredible day of my life!!
With more than a sore head from our all night house party, we were unexpectedly woken in the morning by Grgur who abruptly entered our room whooping ´Dolphins!!´. The weather had promised an optimistic day so we leapt out of bed as fast as we could to board our little boat to sea. It was a very stunning day on the 8th of August 2009 & was only about to become more stunning, as we headed to the waters near the small island of Trstenik. With gasps of disbelief we were soon given the most SPECTACULAR display by a pod of 58 dolphins!!! This was the most amount of dolphins ever recorded in the area & we soon became known as the ´Wow´group because this was all we could say as we watched the dolphins leap into the air all around us. This was a show you could never pay money to see at a marine park, this was a show of the happiest dolphins in their element - the wild. In every direction we looked there would be an airborne dolphin, some leaping at up to 5 metres above the water. There were also mothers & their calves who swam very close to our boat which was unobtrusive to them. Jumping, leaping, even synchronized flying dolphins - Wow Wow Wow is the only way I could describe this day. We spent about 8 hours on the waters that day until we waved our friends goodbye into the sunset. I think we all forgot about our hangovers very quickly until we returned to the house, & reminisced on a perfect day. What a day! Could it be possible to break that record the following day with a pod of 60 dolphins sighted? This leaves me speachless.
My experience as a volunteer has been a remarkable one. I left my home in Australia with a little uncertainty of my life due to personal matters but after this experience I was given hope to follow my dreams & was also given hope for the dolphins & all creatures of the ´Big Blue´ because we CAN all live in harmony if we care a little. Before I left my home in Veli Losinj I adopted a male dolphin named Monk which I hope has helped in the research of his precious life & I encourage all who are capable, to help look after our world, in any big or small way, which we share with many species, some of which are endangered. You can make a difference!
Personally I would like to thank Alena, Grgur, Annika, Leopold, Robert, Nicole, Armin, Nikolina, Andrea & all of the dolphins for, without even realising, helping me get through a difficult time. You helped me ´´ find a good reason to come back up´´.