Arielle Solomon, Dr. Janet Mann, and Gracie Dogramaci (Georgetown ‘28) at the Virginia Osprey Festival

On Saturday, April 11th, the Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project had a booth at the Virginia Osprey Festival in Colonial Beach, VA. The Virginia Osprey Festival is sponsored by the Virginia Osprey Foundation with the goal of engaging the community in osprey and ecological conservation.

Gracie Dogramaci (Georgetown ‘28) speaking with festival attendees.

The event, which went from 9:00am to 4:00pm, around a thousand people to see the compilation of vendors on Colonial Beach’s town hill. The PCDP was able to educate members of our community about dolphins in the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay with an in-person fin matching game, a dolphin skull, and educational pamphlets.

With generous donations from the public, the PCDP is able to continue to study this understudied population.

In addition to reaching the community through conversations at our booth, our Associate Director Dr. Ann-Marie Jacoby gave a talk about the historical abundance of the dolphins in the river and bay. Dr. Jacoby also spoke about the work we do and why dolphin conservation is important.