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“ON EFFORT”NewsletterSpring 2015OFFICERSPEACH HubbardDON BenderKAREN StackKRYSTAL GoodwinPresidentVice PresidentTreasurerSecretaryDIRECTORSRON SatteleTOM WorkmanCHRIS HinesLORI MuskatSANDY WorkmanBECKY CristCOMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONSAdopt A DolphinEDU – ATLData Review -1Data Review -2EDU– gNewsletterNOAA liaisonPublicity-GAPublicity– CoastSocialsSurvey logisticsTraining– ATLTraining—CoastWebsiteCHARLOTTE KeenoyDON BenderPEACH HubbardLORI MuskatKARLA JohnsonGAYLA JonesCHRIS HinesTOM & SANDY WorkmanCHERYL TiltonMARY CirincioneLORI MuskatMAUREEN MoralesPEACH HubbardMARGARET ANN BrownPEACH HubbardTHE DOLPHIN PROJECTP.O. Box 60753Savannah, Georgia orgThe Dolphin Project is an all-volunteer, non-profit research,conservation and education organization, founded in 1989,dedicated to the protection of wild estuarine Bottlenosedolphins and our shared environment. Tax ID# 58-1914176FROM THE HELMGreetings Crew!Spring is Here! - Finally!!!We’ve been busy this winter. The training anddolphin programs have been updated and aregetting rave reviews. We’re still working on thesurvey charts, the Bylaws and survey data. Wehope to have those tasks completed very soon.Our dedicated volunteers are awesome!Be sure to check the survey dates posted on ourwebsite and in this newsletter. Mark yourcalendars and send in your registrations. Acouple members have contacted me regardingtheir inability to register for surveys online.We’ve been receiving many registrations, so itspossible that browsers may need refreshing. Ifyou have submitted online registrations but havenot heard from the survey committee 10-14 daysbefore the survey date, please contact Peach atgadolphin@comcast.net. We’ll do our best toaccommodate you on a survey boat.There are some very important public meetingscoming up about critical coastal issues. Theinformation is in this newsletter. Please attend ifyou can.Don’t be discouraged when you read about theseriousissuesconfrontingourcoastalenvironment and wildlife. We CAN make adifference. The voice of the people must beheard in order to protect our coasts.Peach

2015 FESTIVALS and EDUCATION OUTREACH EVENTSWe have a few festivals coming up that still need volunteers. Please contact Peach if you can help:thedolphinproject@gmail.comSaturday, May 2ndFriday, April 10thJekyll Island Shell-E-BrationSavannah Seafood Festival10am—4:00pmAll dayOn the grounds of the Sea Turtle HospitalSavannah RiverfrontSunday, August 2ndSaturday, April 18thSavannah Earth DayWater Festival11:00am—3:00pm12noon to 4:00pmForsyth ParkChattahoochee Nature CenterDOLPHINS & DESSERTSOur Spring Social will be on April 25th from6:30—? at the Richmond Hill History Museumon Ford Avenue in Richmond Hill off I-95 exit90. Our featured speaker will be the renownCathy Sakas, founder of the Grays ReefNational Marine Sanctuary Foundation, cofounder of the Savannah Ocean Exchange,producer, write and host of the Emmy winningseries—’The Coastal Naturalist’ for PBS aswellasadocumentarytitled‘SecretSeashores’ about Georgia’s barrier islands.Additionally Cathy was the host and scienceconsultant for a multiple Telly award e is 10 which includes desserts andentitled ‘The Natural South.’ She’ll talk aboutbeverage. A casual grilled dinner is availablehow we land dwellers are connected to thefor an additional 10. Children under 12 are halfocean. From 1998 to 2014 Cathy worked withprice. Dinner is choice of chicken or shrimp withNOAA Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuarya variety of sides and a beverage. BYOB.as an educator and scientific diver.RSVP: thedolphinproject@gmail.com

COASTS IN CRISIS .Our coasts are facing many challenges The Palmetto Pipeline will extend from SouthCarolina, across the coast of Georgia toJacksonville. This pipeline will be crossingwetlands and go UNDER rivers!Oil Wells. Seismic Testing to look for oil onour shelf is expected to kill hundreds ofthousands of whales, dolphins and fish. Testingwhich was conducted several years agodetermined that there was only enough oil off ourcoasts to supply the United States for one month.This new seismic testing isn’t worth the risk toour environment and wildlife.solution decided by the EPA is to cover the toxicmud and marsh with sand and rock. This doesnot eliminate the toxins. Marine life lives in themud and marsh. A bandaid will not fix thisproblem.Rayonier Corporation has been discharging up to60 million gallons of dark, foul smelling effluentinto the Altamaha River from it’s Jesup-basedpulp mill. The fish in the Altamaha are inediblefor miles downstream. The pollution is visiblefrom Google Earth. Rayonier wants a EPD permitto discharge.The dredging of the Savannah River will alter thesalinity and put the aquifer at risk.The Dolphin Project is partnered with many otherenvironmental organizations to address thesecritical issues. We encourage you as individualsto stay on top of these matters and contact yourlegislators.The Brunswick-Sapelo area is full ofdangerous toxins due to our government allowingthe LCP superfund site to pollute the area. TheDetails on these issues were reported in our lastnewsletter and updates are printed in thisnewsletter .UPCOMING IMPORTANT PUBLIC MEETINGS.APRIL 9thSEISMIC TESTING MEETING3:00-4:30PM and 5:30-7:00PMAPRIL 18th PIPELINE PROTEST RALLY12noon. Meet at Jackson Square in SavannahHilton Garden Inn—Midtown SavannahBe there to stand up against seismic testing onour coasts. The US government admits it will killthousands of whales and dolphins. ScientistsAPRIL 21stPALMETTON PIPELINE5:00PMsay it can kill hundreds of thousands of whales,Richmond Hill City Center, Richmond Hill GAdolphins and fish.Details on the pipeline are within this newsletter

BLACKFISH UPDATE.John Hargrove can clearly recall the moment in1980 when, as a wide-eyed six-year-old sitting withhis family in the audience at a SeaWorld show inOrlando, he fell in love with killer whales. Harder topinpoint is when his relationship with his dream job,training orcas for the theme park giant, finally turnedsour.But when Brancheau was killed horrifically inFebruary 2010, her body torn apart by an adult malenamed Tilikum at a public dinner show at SeaWorldOrlando, the company came under unprecedentedscrutiny over its policies and safety procedures,leading to a 75,000 citation from the OccupationalIt began with little things he says he started to noticeabout how SeaWorld treated its captive sea lions,dolphins and whales, and the trainers who wouldshowcase them to the public. He says he sawcramped holding pools he believes were filled eveloping arthritis prematurely; and senior trainersbanished from working with their beloved whalesbecause they dared to speak out.Safety and Health Administration and a ban ontrainers working with whales in d share price have slumped. It has appointed anew chief executive and launched a major publicrelations offensive, designed to counter the sh, which looked into Brancheau’s death.Later in his 14-year career, which is chronicled in hisAs for Hargrove, it was the deaths of his friendsnew book, Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales,which probably tipped the balance. The trainer, whoSeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish, he saysdetails his own near-fatal encounter with anhe witnessed incidents that broke his heart: whalesaggressive whale called Freya in the opening pagesbecoming aggressive towards trainers because ofof his book, weighed everything up and decided, infrustration at being confined in tiny pens for hoursAugust 2012, that it was time to quit.on end, or the anguished cries of whale calvesforcibly separated from distressed mothers, againstSeaWorld’s stated policy.Yet the man who is now one of the company’s mostvocal critics says that for years, following the day in1993 when he started as enthusiastic youngThen, just 60 days apart, came the deaths of twoapprentice cleaning out buckets at SeaWorld’s SanfriendsAntonio park, he firmly believed he was working forandfellowtrainers,AlexisMartinezand Dawn Brancheau, both killed by whales ownedthe good of the animals.by SeaWorld.“It took a while,” he says. “You had to learn whatThe death in Spain of Martinez, in the jaws of a 14-was healthy and unhealthy, what was normal andyear-old male named Keto on loan to Tenerife’sabnormal, because you don’t know in the beginning.Loro Parque, alarmed Hargrove and his fellowThey taught us and we spouted it to the public.trainers, he says, not least because it waspresented as a tragic drowning before the autopsyreport revealed the extent of the violence Keto had“Then the company would make these decisions tostrip calves away from their mothers and you wouldlook at them in a different light as they tried to

BLACKFISH (continued)explain it away. They’d say it has to be this way andthat punitive measures include being moved out ofthis is the reason why, and you’d truly believe it;the whale stadium or, if a trainer leaves SeaWorldthen they’d change their story.on bad terms, being blacklisted.“When there was a need, the protocols changed, theHargrove admits that his resignation was partlyruleschanged.Youcaused by his physical condition. Years of workingstart to see cracks inwith the whales in the water left him with a “laundrytheandlist” of injuries including broken ribs, fingers andeventually it registers:toes, serious sinus issues and wrecked cartilage.this is not normal, this“For the last three years, my doctor was telling me Iis not right.”needed to quit now,” he m. “We donotwhaleJohn Hargrove speaks atWhaleFest2015 on March 14thin Brighton UKseparatekillermomsandUltimately, though, he says he stayed on because ofhis “spiritual connection” to the whales, and ces.calves, and in the rare“I’m conflicted about my career because I haveoccurrences that we domemories I’ll cherish for the rest of my life,move whales among ourmemoriesthatmostpeople never havetheparks, we do so only in order to maintain a healthyopportunity to have. These whales gave me mysocialchildhood dream,” he says.structure,”saysarebuttalonitswebsite seaworldcares.com.“But I was also part of a system that did this to thoseChuck Tompkins, SeaWorld’s curator of zoologicalanimals. I was the one treating sunburns becauseoperations, said Hargrove was mistaken to say thetheir skins were drying out because they were lyingwhales were distressed. “We’ve trained them to bemotionless on the surface of the water with norelaxed during that move,” he told NPR in a recentshade for hours, and on and on.interview. “To say that they’re uncomfortable orstressed, that’s just not the way we do our“I was able to leave and go on with my life, andbusiness.”they’re not. For everything they gave me, the leastthat I can do is take some criticism from boardroomBut Hargrove is adamant that he is aware of at leastcowards, the SeaWorld people sat behind a19 calves being separated from their mothers, andkeyboard; weather that storm, and go out there andsays any dissent is quickly quashed by SeaWorld’stell the truth.“cult-like” attitude.“The way that it works is you keep your mouth shut.If you don’t, there’s a price to pay,” he says, adding“I was a killer whale trainer for 14 years and this iswhat I saw, the good and the bad.”