dolphins up close

Hi Unis! I hope you’re all having a fantastic summer. My summer has been filled with beach, ocean, and plenty of dolphins – just the way I like it! I started my summer doing field work in Sarasota, FL. An amazing group of researchers based out of Mote Marine Lab there carries out an annual health assessment of their local bottlenose dolphin population, and because my PhD research involves studying the genetic susceptibility of these animals to toxic red tides, I got to help out this year. A dolphin health assessment is no easy task. Our goal is to capture live dolphins, bring them up on a boat, run full vet exams on them and collect as many biological samples as we can, and then successfully release them again. While this may seem nearly impossible if you know anything about how big and fast these animals are, the team at Mote has been conducting this project for many years and has the process perfected so that its safe for all dolphins and humans involved.

This task involves 8 boats and over 40 people out on the water everyday for a week. One boat is responsible for driving a net around the dolphins; several fast motor boats filled with big strong guys are responsible for getting to the net as quickly as possible and getting their people in the water to get the dolphin under control; one boat is set up for the veterinary exams; and lastly, my boat was the sample processing boat which contained all the kits and equipment needed to collect the various biological samples (including vials with Duke-Cammen labels! Small skin samples were taken for my genetics analysis). Lucky for me, our boat tied directly up the vet boat so I got to see the dolphins up close and watch the vets do their work. A couple times I even got to jump over to the vet boat and help hold the dolphins as they did their exams. The dolphins are surprisingly calm throughout the entire procedure.

My week in Florida was unforgettable. I met many new people in the marine mammal field and made great connections with researchers I hope to work with in the future. I also came home with a set of dolphin tissue samples and got in the lab as soon as I could to work on those. Being part of a dolphin health assessment is an amazing experience, and I couldn’t have asked for any better way to start my PhD research. I wish I could show you pictures of all of this, but unfortunately we’re asked not to post our pictures online because of research permit limits. Instead, I’ve attached a picture of a bottlenose dolphin that a student took on a trip out from the Duke Marine Lab with the Marine Mammals class that I’m TA-ing this summer. Enjoy!

-Kristina

Julie Klein, “A Platform for a Shared Discourse of Interdisciplinary Education”

Julie Klein has been working on “interdisciplinarity” for almost 20 years and is author of numerous books. Here’s her latest work from the Journal of Social Science Education, “A Platform for a Shared Discourse of Interdisciplinary Education.”

-Tori L.

Home – a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

“We 6 billion human beings are not the only inhabitants of this planet. We share it with billions and billions of animals, plants, and single-cell organisms. And it is not merely a case of cohabitation: our very existence depends on our close links with these other organisms. Albert Einstein once predicted that if the honey bee disappeared, the human race could only last four years: without bees to pollinate their flowers, the majority of plants would fail to reproduce and would die out, along with all the animals that depend upon them for food, and that includes mankind.

All living organisms, including humans, are part of a complex web of relationships that connects them with one another and with their environment. This interdependence relates to the food chain, to the balance of populations, and to natural cycles. As a result of these relationships, all the basic elements circulate and are exchanged between living beings and the environment in a process that is constant and universal, occurring through us and all around us.” – An excerpt from Home, by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

For some, this film may just be a reminder of where we stand today. For others, it may very well be a wakeup call.

It it an inconvenient truth. That our current lifestyle cannot sustained by our mutual Home for long. Yes, we envision a comfortable life ahead of us. Yet, look around you…do you really need all of those things in that room right now? Or was it a sudden impulse spurred by the GRAND RED LETTERS IN BOLD that reads “BUY ONE GET ONE FREE” or “50% OFF OF ALL SUMMER GOODS” ? Our modern society’s consumerist culture has irrevocably formulated our lifestyles and behaviors. Can such behaviors so deeply ingrained in our culture be changed? That is one question that you can only answer for yourself. And once you have found your own answer, may your thoughts and wisdom steer your actions.

You can watch the movie online by clicking here. However, if you can grab a DVD and watch it with some like-minded friends, I think it’ll be a whole another experience

Best,

- Runbin D.