Professionals Training, Sarasota, May 2022

Report by Maria Jimena Valderrama, veterinarian, from our partner organization Fundación Omacha https://omacha.org/

During the annual bottlenose dolphin health survey in Sarasota, Florida, organized by the Chicago Zoological Society and the Dolphin Biology Research Institute, I participated as an invited researcher, working in or near the waters of Sarasota Bay and surrounding areas with free-ranging dolphins.
This opportunity allowed me to increase my knowledge of dolphin population health assessment through specialized clinical examinations, ultrasound, sample collection and processing, analysis of physiological processes, and additional methods for identifying and capturing small cetacean populations. I plan to apply all of this to my work in South America with endangered river dolphins.
The Omacha Foundation has been working to protect them and aquatic ecosystems for about 30 years, but there is an urgent need to use new conservation medicine techniques to meet the new challenges posed by emerging diseases and new threats that may affect this species and its ecosystems.
This space was also a place to share experiences and knowledge with different institutions such as the National Marine Mammal Foundation, where new alliances were created for joint work in Colombia.