“To protect, conserve and re-establish the Southeastern United States diminishing wildlife and their habitats”
a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Sponsors / Partners
Marine Mammal Research Support
Dauphin Island Sea Lab is involved in several marine mammal research projects to
include the Population Ecology of West Indian manatees in Alabama waters and research
efforts on stranding’s of cetaceans (dolphins, whales). In particular, the Dauphin
Island Sea Lab’s Mobile Manatees Sighting Network includes photo-identification,
aerial and ground surveys, tagging and tracking manatee movements, habitat and food
resource characterization (application of stable isotope techniques), analysis of
population data and comparison to habitat and food supply data. DISL is particularly
interested in the potential use of fringe manatees as sentinel species to detect
and predict ecosystem level responses to environmental change. A new area of interest
is in how climate change may affect habitat and food resources while simultaneously
promoting habitat and range expansion.
The Mobile Manatees Sighting Network (MMSN)
is the first and only network dedicated to collecting, mapping and tracking manatee
movements in the northern Gulf of Mexico region outside Florida. In September 2009,
MMSN and collaborators made history by tagging a manatee for the first time in Alabama
waters. 
Project outputs will comprehensively define manatee fringe habitat in the
northern Gulf of Mexico for the first time, predict how future environmental changes
are likely to alter habitat and manatee movements, and enable policies to sustain
habitat and promote conservation into the future. Specifically, data will inform
stakeholders about when and where to expect to find manatees, provide guidance for
public notification, help identify recovery priorities with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service (USFWS), contribute to policy documents, and reduce the likelihood of stranding’s
or conflicts between manatees and people.
In support of this valuable research program,
the Southeastern Wildlife Conservation Group will be supporting Dauphin Island Sea
Lab’s research efforts associated with the Mobile Manatees Sighting Network as directed
by DISL where we can be of valuable benefit to their mission. The primary focus of
the SWCG’s efforts will be to provide manatee sighting confirmation and identification,
reports of entanglement, stranding assistance and support of DISL’s manatee tracking
efforts throughout the Mobile Tensaw Delta. The SWCG will use its SWAT vessel upon
notification of a manatee sighting, stranding or planned tracking event and be dispatched
to perform research operations or to locate the animal and confirm the sighting as
well as to take data for manatee identification.
The SWCG will also be involved in cetacean stranding in support of research studies
under Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Stranding Agreement. The SWCG will respond to cetacean
stranding as notified by DISL to assist in either freeing the stranded animal or
to assist in performing research studies on deceased animals. The SWCG’s primary
contribution will be to utilize its SWAT Boat to reach isolated animals within the
watershed; to retrieve deceased animals within the marine environment and assisting
in performing scientific necropsies; and to mobilize with DISL to assist in beach
stranding’s for release or assistance in performing scientific necropsies on-site.
Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s research efforts are vital to the health of the Alabama Gulf Coast and the greater Gulf of Mexico region. Since the BP oil spill, research studies on our local marine ecosystems are even more important and in light of Governmental budget cuts, such important research studies are in jeopardy. Support of the SWCG’s efforts in marine mammal research support will help Dauphin Island Sea Lab in their mission as well.
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