Pablo Bordino

La Plata Dolphin Studies

LocationCountryCategoriesDate
Buenos Aires Province ArgentinaCentral and Latin America, Cetaceans, Fish, Mammals, Marine14 Aug 2001

The La Plata or Franciscana dolphin is among the world's smallest and most endangered dolphins, endemic to the coastal Atlantic waters off South America. They are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and are on the IUCN red list of endangered species. Over the last 30 years tens of thousands of these small and very shy dolphins have been killed as incidental bycatch in the long, small-meshed gillnets of local fishermen.

Pablo Bordino is the Director of a local Argentinean environmental organisation, Fundacion AquaMarine, which is dedicated to protecting the marine environment in Argentina. Pablo works with local artisinal fishermen along the coast of the Buenos Aires Province in Argentina to prevent the incidental catch and subsequent deaths of the La Plata dolphin. At least 500 of these small and very shy dolphins are killed in long gillnets every year. The total population of the dolphin, its breeding, social and feeding habits, are unknown. Pablo has set up a project which he hopes will ensure the survival of this species by studying the dolphin's natural habitat, by working to overcome the problems with the fishing nets, and by establishing marine reserves along the Buenos Aires Province coast.

Most of the coastal area off the Buenos Aires province is over-fished. Pablo Bordino believes that by targeting a "flagship" species such as the La Plata Dolphin could serve to greatly protect the entire marine coastal habitat and biodiversity.

In 2002 Pablo won the WildInvest Continuation Award. You can contact Pablo at bordino@aquamarina.org.

Project Update: August 2001

At present, we are working with the assistance of professional people from the Graphic Art Design Cathedra in the University of Buenos Aires and two independent illustrators. They are working on a brochure, poster, sticker and folder to be used during the Campaign this summer. The brochure will be distributed among tourists visiting the coast, posters will be put in the stores and delivered to schools, sticker will be used to identify people (fishermen, store owners, etc) supporting the Project, and folders will contain educational material to be delivered to Public and Private Schools in the Buenos Aires Province.

Three big signs with information about the species are going to be put in the Coast Guard Offices atSan Bernardo, Villa Gesell, and Bahia San Blas. The signs are ready, but we cannot use it untill have official permissions to place them.

All these material include the logos from Whitley and Rufford Foundation, Wildlife Trust, Fundacion AquaMarina, Prefectura Naval Argentina (Coast Guard) and from the County Halls involved in those areas. People are doing this work as volunteers after knew about the Project, so no extra expenses are going to be reported for their work as designers. This behavior is rare especially in a country where the economy has been going down every day since the last year, but more people has been excited for giving any kind of support after receiving the award.

The Campaign will start next September in Schools and will run for three months. Since next November to March we will be working in the coast, testing a new acoustic alarm for reducing the dolphin's entanglement. This is the best time to start with the Conservation Campaign aimed to General Public. More than 4 millon people visited the beaches last year, so we expect to have good results from this work.

Final Report

Read about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.

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Detailed Final Report.doc31 KB

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