On the Expedition
Follow bottlenose dolphins in Mediterranean waters to help scientists understand and combat the main threats to them and their ecosystem.
Based in the charming Greek village of Vonitsa on the Amvrakikos Gulf, you’ll have the opportunity to experience traditional village life as you help researchers conduct daily surveys on the area's bottlenose dolphins. From a small research vessel, you’ll scan the water for dolphin dorsal fins. Your team will spot dolphins, follow them, and record information on their numbers, group composition, activity, movement patterns and interactions with the area’s fishing industry. The research team identifies individual dolphins by looking for distinguishing signs such as bite marks, nicks, and notches in their dorsal fins. The dolphins living in the Gulf often approach the research boat to bowride, even when the boat is moving slowly, so you’ll have a chance to see them up close and hear their echolocation clicks and whistles.
Back at the field station, you’ll help enter data and prepare digital images of these dorsal fins for matching. Your days will start early, but you will have the traditional siesta each afternoon for resting or otherwise enjoying the quiet coast.
Meals and Accommodations
You’ll share a comfortable and large loft with a wooden floor, bunk beds, and a bright living area with the other volunteers on your team. A fully equipped apartment next door provides an open kitchen and living room, two bathrooms, an office, and rooms for the research staff. Bathrooms are conventional, with showers, hot water, and flush toilets. Housekeeping, including cooking and cleaning up, are communal activities, though you may opt to enjoy Vonitsa's quaint and inexpensive restaurants when the mood strikes you. Juices, soft drinks, and ice are always available.
About the Research Area
The village of Vonitsa, where the field station is located, lies on the southern coast of the Amvrakikos Gulf, a virtually closed basin that is one of the most productive coastal areas in Greece, its largest and one of its most important wetlands. The Gulf is designated as a Ramsar site and as a Special Protection Area. It has rocky pebbled beaches and is surrounded by densely wooded mountain peaks, verdant plains, lakes and rivers, and sparkling white villages inhabited by hospitable people. The Amvrakikos Gulf is not a glamorous tourist destination, and so retains a genuinely traditional Greek environment.
The Byzantines built a large castle on the hill of Vonitsa, and subsequent Turks and Venetians, made their own mark upon the structure. Illuminated at night, the castle is a beautiful sight from below, and offers rewarding views of the Gulf from its heights. In this quiet, welcoming seafront village you can sit and enjoy good food or a café frappé (iced coffee) at the traditional cafes and tavernas. Large sea turtles can be spotted from the coast, and even inside the port among the moored boats.
The economy in the area is simple and includes fishing, fish-farming and agriculture. Tourism is relatively undeveloped. Locals are very friendly and sometimes curious about foreigners. In Vonitsa everyone knows everyone else and new faces in town may draw some attention. Most people speak exclusively Greek but many can manage to communicate with a few words of English.