Volunteer work in the dolphin protection project in Croatia

Work in the project

Guided by Darja, we learned a lot about the Adriatic Sea as an ecosystem, about different species of dolphins, their physiology and behavior, how to identify them and how to collect and evaluate scientific data about them.
During the day we met to enter the data, to identify individual dolphins and for Darja's lectures. In the afternoon we went to the boat for data collection or for so-called land observation. Watching dolphins gave me goosebumps every time! Unfortunately, the pressure on these marine mammals, which are so important for the ecosystem, is noticeably high due to overfishing, climate change and many ruthless "dolphin watching" boats. It is all the more important that we were able to contribute to drawing attention to these abuses with our volunteering.

housing and living together

We were seven volunteers from different countries, schools, professions and age groups and lived together in a flat-sharing community and divided up the individual activities, such as cooking or cleaning, fairly. That worked wonderfully. I think that everyone was able to positively contribute their different strengths and skills. Regardless of that, we also had a lot of fun together after work on joint activities.

My conclusion on the dolphin protection project

In summary, these almost two weeks were an incredible enrichment for me. Darja made a lasting impression on me with her zest for action and her enthusiasm and she convinced me that protection and therefore also research on dolphins and other predators is very important. She motivated me to continue working for these animals even after volunteering.

It felt like an (active) holiday - with the nice side effect that I learned an incredible amount of new things, met great people and maybe even did something good.
For me, this was certainly not my last volunteering and also not my last assignment with Darja: I promise!

Field report by Lena, July/August 2022