PCDP undergraduate researcher, Shea O’Day (Georgetown ‘26), presented her research regarding dolphin associations within the Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project for her Research Intensive Senior Experience.

This year-long experience is designed to allow biology students the chance to conduct an independent research project under the mentorship of a biology faculty advisor.

O’Day’s research centers around determining relationships and associations between the dolphins. Understanding these associations is crucial for tracking population development, social structure, and population and ecosystem health. This task is especially daunting for the PCDP as we have over ~2,000 dolphins in the Potomac-Chesapeake, and they often travel in large groups that do not necessarily imply close relationships between each and every dolphin.

In order to determine these relationships, O’Day is investigating the viability of using metadata from photos to determine a threshold of association. O’Day is using the time intervals between photos of dolphins to set this threshold, so that the project can use photos to ascertain meaningful associations.

After this presentation, O’Day will continue to analyze her research and hopefully will be able to determine a threshold from the photos that can tell us more about associations between the dolphins.