Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, South Australia

An Inspiring Opportunity with Benefits All Round

$27,490 (part of a commitment of $49,170 over three years) to POD-WATCH – Port Pirie www.wdcs.org.au

The school day has become a little more exciting for a group of students at John Pirie High School in Port Pirie, South Australia. In the wake of a similar highly successful project on Kangaroo Island, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) brought their POD-Watch Program to the school and are now working with a group of students to monitor dolphin populations in the Spencer Gulf.

Students at John Pirie High School were invited to apply for one of the eight coveted volunteer positions. Five students won the right to be ‘permanent observers’ in 2009 with points counting towards their South Australian Certificate of Education. An additional three volunteer posts are available to other students on a rotating basis.

The aim of the Program is to enable students to capture key data required in the study of these mammals in the region.

“We identify the dolphins by their dorsal fins which are unique, like a fingerprint, and pick up other markings made by injury,” student observer Yorke Heath told the local newspaper, the Port Pirie Recorder. “We take photos of the fins at 90˚ angles to clearly see the markings and then we study them on the laptop to see if they have been previously identified,” reported another participant, Cody Elridge. “If we find a new one, we have the privilege of naming it”.

The POD-Watch Program is helping WDCS establish a database of movements, behaviours and habitats in the region. Using GPS and GIS mapping technology, the students are providing researchers with information that would usually take countless man hours and money to obtain and which is of great value to researchers.

“The Program offers a range of benefits. The work of the students makes a genuine contribution to the science and knowledge of dolphins, and for students, the Program itself opens up education and career pathways in science and environment,” explains Dr Mike Bossley AM, Regional Managing Director of WDCS. With another two years of the Program still to run at John Pirie High School, it is hoped that more students will be inspired by the opportunity. With terrific support already received from the local Port Pirie community it looks likely that POD-Watch will have a life beyond the Foundation’s grant.