Saturday, July 17

8:00 – 9:00 AM: Bottlenose Dolphin Health Assessment Project.

Presenter: Dr. Gregory Bossart, Georgia Aquarium. Atlanta, Georgia and HBOI.

Dr. Bossart may be the most well-known marine mammal veterinarian in the country. He has an incredible amount of knowledge and it was a pleasure to listen to him lecture.

9:00 – 10:00 AM: Emerging Diseases of Marine Mammals.

Presenter: Dr. Bossart.

10:00 AM – Noon: Toxicology and Pathology of Beluga Whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary.

Presenter: Dr. Martineau.

Noon – 1:00 PM: Lunch

1:00 – 3:00 PM: Monitoring Arctic Marine Mammal Health. Working with Subsistence Cultures and Federal Agencies. Heavy Metals and Organohalogen Contaminants in Marine Mammals.

Presenter: Dr. Todd O’Hara, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska.

O’Hara is based in Alaska and presented his topic over speakerphone. It was an strange but interesting lecture.

3:00 – 5:00 PM: Manatees and Marine Mammal Conservation Medicine.

Presenter: Dr. Bossart.

As if they knew what we were studying, a group of about 6 manatees entered the harbor outside of our classroom as the lecture was completed. Many of us went to watch them frolic in the water.

5:00 – 6:00 PM: Dinner.

Evening: I made a trip to the Laundromat to wash all of my clothes. While there I played some Mortal Kombat with a few of my fellow envirovets…By the time we got back most of the other students were already asleep.