Hello everyone!
First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Milaja, I'm originally from Finland and now living in the cool city of Cork in Ireland. I'm a new PhD student at University College Cork studying bottlenose dolphins (those guys in the picture below) on the west coast of Ireland. The focus of my research will be on the animals sighted on the coastal areas of Connemara, Mayo and Donegal.
 |
| ©Anneli Englund |
I'm starting field work mid-May, and I'll be based in Claddaghduff, Co Galway for three months with the idea of doing boat-based surveys mainly in the coastal waters of Connemara, Mayo and Donegal. Once we (hopefully) encounter the animals, I'll try to photograph as many bottlenose dolphins as possible using a digital SLR camera. The field work is funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Some dolphins can be individually identified from markings (nicks, scars and notches) on their dorsal fin and this makes it possible to keep a record of the sighting history of those animals by comparing any new pictures to the existing photo-ID catalogue of already known individuals. This gives us an estimate of the movements and distribution of the animals and we can also derive estimates of their numbers in the area (abundance).
Anyways, I'll be updating this blog every week once I'm up and running in Claddaghduff and uploading more pictures for you to see. Hopefully we'll have good weather (I've heard it's sometimes possible in Ireland!) and plenty of opportunities to see and study bottlenose dolphins in the coming summer!
Cheers,
Milaja Nykanen
