Waves, wind and Commerson's dolphins

Summer arrives, vacations comes, and just as many people use to go to the beach on vacation to take a deserved break after a long year of work, we also take this time to go to the coast but with a different objective: we go in search of Commerson's dolphins.

Just as we do from the beginning of Fundación Cethus, back in December 1992, we are going to be on the coasts of Santa Cruz this Summer, collecting information that helps us to know and understand a little more about different aspects of Commerson's dolphin’s life.

These dolphins, whose scientific name is Cephalorhynchus commersonii, get close to the coast of this province in spring-summer to give birth to their calves and mate. It is thought that they choose bays and estuaries because they are shelter areas and they use these areas as a protection strategy towards the calves from predators.

Commerson's dolphins are very inquisitive and they often approach boats to swim at the bow or wake. Thus, we can take pictures that allow us to identify each animal and to create a catalog in which we also record re-sightings in different years, dolphins that we can know make groups, their offspring, approximate age, and lots of other data that we can learn about each dolphin.

We will also continue working to get more information about the population structure at a genetic level and walking along the coasts in search of stranded animals on the beaches.

All this is possible thanks to the cooperation of people like you who are interested in cetaceans, the organizations that help us and the effort of Cethus’ members.