Conserving Marine Mammals in Costa Rica

I highly recommend this expedition. I loved every minute of it. David was very passionate about the whales and dolphins and Golfo Dulce. He loved sharing his knowledge of this project and how important the research is for the health of the animals and Golfo Dulce. The accommodations in the handcrafted eco-cabins were lovely and the home cooked food was delicious. I enjoyed spending my free time on the porch bird watching or playing cards with other team members.

It was hot, wet work following whales and dolphins in a boat for hours in Golfo Dulce; not to mention catching fish and sharks, especially at night. But the reward of seeing magnificent humpbacks and spectacular bottlenose and spotted dolphins made it all worthwhile. The lectures and supplemental videos provided significant insight into understanding these creatures and their habitat, as well as the food chain and health of this environment. Our efforts hopefully will help this area to become a protected marine ecosystem. Lenin, the PI and David, his associate were very informative and patient in answering our many questions. The accommodations were more than adequate, the family owners and staff accommodating, the food terrific, the showers fairly warm,and there were no mosquitoes despite the plentiful rainfall (after all it is a rain forest). We also enjoyed a local school visit complete with ice cream and soccer, a visit to a wonderful wildlife sanctuary and lunch in the nearby town. Our great team had a lot of fun and more than a few laughs, sometimes even at my jokes. Thanks to all for another great adventure. I've already signed up for my tenth expedition. Ken Dubuque, 8/22/17 team

As a new retiree, I was looking for an organization that I could become a part of that would keep me active, contribute to a worth while cause, be a learning experience, and be fun. Earthwatch fit the bill and exceeded my expectations. Not only was I able to work in a beautiful country, Costa Rica, be with an interesting group of people, spend each day either on the water observing and collecting data on dolphins, but I learned in an up close and personal way about dolphins and how climate change impacts both the dolphins and their environment. You can learn many things from a book but nothing compares to actually living with what you are studying. So many of the dolphins had been named by the scientists and we were able to recognize some of them by the end of our expedition. We awoke every morning to a serenade by literally hundreds of birds-heavenly!! Earthwatch should be on every ones bucket list.