If you’ve been unable to attend one of our face-to-face Dolphin Watch training sessions, the good news is that you don’t have to wait until we hold our next event to become a trained Dolphin Watch volunteer!
We’re excited to announce that you can now become a certified Dolphin Watcher and start contributing to dolphin research as a citizen scientist by watching our online training videos.
Simply complete the form below to register your interest and we’ll email you through the link/s to the brand-new online training videos recorded by our Dolphin Watch scientists and uploaded to our River Guardians YouTube channel. Once you’ve watched the videos, all you need to do is review, complete and return the paperwork we’ll email you (i.e. DBCA Volunteer Registration Form, Job Safety Analysis (JSA) form and Parks and Wildlife Service Volunteer Handbook) and it’s official…you will become part of the Dolphin Watch team!
How can I get involved?
Dolphin Watch is open to anyone. A free training event is run in each region (Perth, Mandurah and Broome) annually and volunteers (Dolphin Watchers) learn how to record their observations using the Marine Fauna Sightings app on their smartphone.
Volunteers learn basic observation techniques and how to ‘observe but not disturb’, in keeping with regulations in the Biodiversity Conservation Act (2016) and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations (2018) and protocols for marine mammal interaction.
Dolphin Watchers make a valuable contribution to Murdoch and Edith Cowan universities scientific research, while gaining skills and networking with others involved in caring for our marine, estuarine and freshwater river environments.