deniz memelileri araştırma derneği (dmad)

The marine environment plays a vital role in our world’s natural ecosystems, yet our oceans are subject to increasing human pressures and we need to take action, BE THE CHANGE for good reasons. We are DMAD, Deniz Memelileri Araştırma Derneği, Marine Mammals Research Association based in Turkey, founded in 2015 and working in the Eastern Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea. After looking into surrounding areas in 2016, we discovered a huge knowledge gap in cetacean species along the Montenegrin coastline and decided to launch another project in Bar, Montenegro. So the Montenegro Dolphin Project, MDP, was established and become another hugely successful charity dedicated to conserving our oceans and the life within it. Our Motivation ​ The main aim of our projects is to complete a full record of all the cetacean species present within our study areas, in the hope that ultimately we can start to implement strategies to help protect these marine mammals, and with dolphins being top predators, we will ultimately be protecting the whole marine ecosystem. The main questions we wish to address are the behaviour and distribution patterns of the cetacean species, to achieve this we are currently collecting data from boat and land surveys. This data will infer population statues, abundance and general distribution of the most common species, as well as initiate a photo-ID catalogue with a comprehensive database on the most common cetacean individuals in the area. In turn we will be able to start defining any hot spots and critical habitats we need to protect from harmful human activities.