Campaign supports research to protect inshore dolphins

Australia’s snubfin dolphin population, found in the inshore tropical waters of Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, is the focus of a new fundraising campaign by the Australian Geographic Society (AGS).

The AGS conservation campaign will provide funds for research being conducted through Southern Cross University’s Capricorn Cetaceans Project and to the Mackay Conservation Group’s conservation campaign to save habitat important to inshore dolphins.

Dr Daniele Cagnazzi is a postdoctoral fellow at the University’s Marine Ecology Research Centre and leads the Capricorn Cetaceans Project. He has been studying the long-term conservation and management of inshore dolphins in Central Queensland since 2006.

“Our research has shown that Australian snubfin and Australian humpback dolphins are particularly vulnerable to human-related and natural threatening processes,” Dr Cagnazzi said.

He said the funds raised through the Australian Geographic Society campaign would support a new study.

“This will be the first dedicated monitoring project to estimate abundance and develop spatial distribution models of tropical inshore dolphins between Mackay and Bowen, one of the areas under major human-related stress within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World Heritage Area,” he said.

Dr Cagnazzi’s project will also investigate movement patterns and connectivity to better understand and manage the impacts on these dolphins in the region.

“It will include the involvement of Australia’s Indigenous communities and the broader community to enable the long-term conservation and management of tropical inshore dolphins,” Dr Cagnazzi said.

Dr Cagnazzi’s project is being conducted with the support of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Information is available at the Capricorn Cetaceans Project website and the Australian Geographic Society .

Photo: An Australian snubfin dolphin. Photo credit Maureen Duffy.