{"id":3777,"date":"2024-02-21T06:47:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T06:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfs.local\/program\/sea-turtles-and-marine-mammals-of-the-adriatic\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:17:49","slug":"sea-turtles-and-marine-mammals-of-the-adriatic","status":"publish","type":"program","link":"https:\/\/fieldstudies.org\/center\/croatia\/program\/sea-turtles-and-marine-mammals-of-the-adriatic\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea Turtles and Marine Mammals of the Adriatic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Adriatic shimmers with dolphins, loggerhead turtles, and seagrass meadows, yet its waters rank among Europe\u2019s most heavily trafficked and fished. Students survey bottlenose dolphins, satellite track turtles, and monitor seagrass, while analyzing how shipping, tourism, and bycatch threaten fragile populations. A dolphin breach beside the research boat becomes a moment of wonder, even as students log the data into conservation records. They also help rehabilitate injured turtles and interpret stranding data for policy. Each encounter underscores Croatia\u2019s dilemma: a coast famed for beauty but pressured by unsustainable growth. Students not only contribute data but also grapple with how science and society must recalibrate to keep the Adriatic alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Survey bottlenose dolphins during daily research cruises, recording behavior, group composition, and individual IDs for long-term population tracking.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Satellite track loggerhead turtles and assess post-release success from rehabilitation centers, linking individual journeys to regional conservation outcomes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Monitor Adriatic seagrass meadows for structure and health while documenting associations with fish, turtles, and invertebrates.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Record cetacean acoustic behavior with hydrophones, analyzing whistles, clicks, and calls as part of population communication studies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Conduct Directed Research: frame a stakeholder-driven question, collect and analyze field data with faculty guidance, and present actionable findings to local partners.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hosting rich biodiversity, diverse habitat types and cultural heritage sites, yet exposed to numerous human uses, the Croatian coast, islands, and sea are important from a Mediterranean perspective. This region is a great \u201cnatural laboratory\u201d for studying and tackling the two interrelated conservation challenges of this age \u2013 biodiversity loss and climate change. Through lectures, seminars, group work in the field and in the lab, study visits, and community engagement, you will learn about challenges and opportunities to reconcile marine megafauna conservation with socio-economic demands and local traditions. You will explore dolphin and turtle conservation challenges, and their linkages to small island communities, large scale tourism, coastal and open sea habitats, local and industrial-scale fisheries, and other community and economic contexts. Thus, the knowledge and experience gained here is broadly applicable to other regions and contexts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23274,"template":"","location":[94],"class_list":["post-3777","program","type-program","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-croatia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstudies.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program\/3777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstudies.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstudies.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstudies.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstudies.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstudies.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=3777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}