FINS
FINS
  • Home
  • Meet our team
  • Research
  • Publications
  • Outreach & Conservation
  • Contact Us
  • More
    • Home
    • Meet our team
    • Research
    • Publications
    • Outreach & Conservation
    • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Meet our team
  • Research
  • Publications
  • Outreach & Conservation
  • Contact Us

Research

Learn about our work

Our team of scientists lead research projects with marine animals internationally. In Mexico, we work to study marine megafauna across the Mexican Caribbean coast. Our work in Belize focuses on the distribution, behavioral ecology, and communication of marine mammals.

Adapting small drones to study dolphin behavior

Studying dolphin behavior in the wild is hard. We're helping advance the field of drone-based studies of marine mammals in the Caribbean Sea. We use commercial DJI drones to fly over dolphins and track their activity.

Drones let us track the behavior of all the dolphins in a group. We also use the tracks of the drone to examine the movement strategies of dolphins and how these spatial behaviors vary throughout their diverse habitat at Turneffe Atoll, Belize.

Our goal is to better understand how dolphins shift their habitat use based on different environmental characteristics and the dynamics of their groups.

Protecting marine life in Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve

We study the marine megafauna of Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve

We study the marine megafauna of Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve

We study the marine megafauna of Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve

This includes bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles, Antillean manatees, and various species of sharks and rays.

The reserve is a hotspot for marine animals.

We study the marine megafauna of Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve

We study the marine megafauna of Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve

But these species face major impacts from boat-based tourism and future development.

Some species live here year-round and others pass through

We study the marine megafauna of Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve

Some species live here year-round and others pass through

We identify species like leatherback sea turtles in the shallow lagoon waters of Sian Ka'an.

Manatees and their sinkholes

Learning to finding the manatees of the reserve

Learning to finding the manatees of the reserve

Our data suggest sinkholes are key habitats for manatees within the reserve. They are also prime locations for boat-based tourism. 

Learning to finding the manatees of the reserve

Learning to finding the manatees of the reserve

Learning to finding the manatees of the reserve

We use small drones to detect and track manatees throughout the region. Our methods for drone-based studies are proving to be powerful for studying wild manatees.

Hope for the future

Learning to finding the manatees of the reserve

Hope for the future

We work closely with the communities in the region to improve education about marine mammals in local communities and to help establish sustainable dolphin- and manatee-watching tour practices.

Innovating drone studies for studying manatees

Since 2015, we've been leading research using small aerial drones to detect and study the Antillean manatees. We designed a variety of studies to explore the efficacy of drones for monitoring wild manatees.

Drone-based photo-identification of wild manatees

Team: Sarah Landeo-Yauri, Nataly Castelblanco-Martinez, Eric Angel Ramos, Carlos Alberto Niño Torres, Linda Searle

Read our recent publication produced from this project in Endangered Species Research on using small drones for photo-identification of Antillean manatees

We conducted a study to assess the utility of small drones for photo-identification studies of wild Antillean manatees.

We conducted a study to assess the utility of small drones for photo-identification studies of wild Antillean manatees.

Read our recent publication produced from this project in Endangered Species Research on using small drones for photo-identification of Antillean manatees

We conducted a study to assess the utility of small drones for photo-identification studies of wild Antillean manatees.

Read our recent publication produced from this project in Endangered Species Research on using small drones for photo-identification of Antillean manatees

Read our recent publication produced from this project in Endangered Species Research on using small drones for photo-identification of Antillean manatees

Read our recent publication produced from this project in Endangered Species Research on using small drones for photo-identification of Antillean manatees

Photogrammetry for body condition assessment of manatees

Team: Eric Angel Ramos, Sarah Landeo-Yauri, Nataly Castelblanco-Martínez, Maria Renée Arreola, Adam Quade and Guillaume Rieucau

Project summary: Understanding the health and condition of wild manatees is complicated. We flew small commercial drones over manatees out-of-the-box and equipped with small LiDAR sensors. We used these drone-based videos and images of manatees in captivity and the wild to develop effective methods for measuring their body size and assessing their body condition. These results are getting worked up for submission to the special issue of Mammalian Biology on individual identification and  photographic techniques in mammalian ecological and behavioural research.

Examining the acoustic behavior of manatees

Manatees make a variety of squeaky and chirpy sounds. How the Antillean manatee use these sounds is still largely a mystery. We are conducting studies throughout North, Central, and South America to study the acoustic behavior of the West Indian Manatee.

Manatees make a variety of squeaky and chirpy sounds. How the Antillean manatee use these sounds is still largely a mystery. We are conducting studies throughout North, Central, and South America to study the acoustic behavior of the West Indian Manatee.

Manatees make a variety of squeaky and chirpy sounds. How the Antillean manatee use these sounds is still largely a mystery. We are conducting studies throughout North, Central, and South America to study the acoustic behavior of the West Indian Manatee.

Our acoustic recorders are silently documenting the sounds of manatees in deep holes and channels.

Manatees make a variety of squeaky and chirpy sounds. How the Antillean manatee use these sounds is still largely a mystery. We are conducting studies throughout North, Central, and South America to study the acoustic behavior of the West Indian Manatee.

Manatees make a variety of squeaky and chirpy sounds. How the Antillean manatee use these sounds is still largely a mystery. We are conducting studies throughout North, Central, and South America to study the acoustic behavior of the West Indian Manatee.

Read our recent publication on the ultrasonic calls of Antillean manatees in Belize

Manatees make a variety of squeaky and chirpy sounds. How the Antillean manatee use these sounds is still largely a mystery. We are conducting studies throughout North, Central, and South America to study the acoustic behavior of the West Indian Manatee.

Read our recent publication on the ultrasonic calls of Antillean manatees in Belize

The sounds of baby Antillean manatees at Wildtracks

Documenting the marine mammals of the Western Caribbean Sea

Since 2009, we have been building an understanding of the diversity of marine mammal species found in the Western Caribbean Sea. We aggregate opportunistic sighting data and published records to maintain a comprehensive database of marine mammals throughout Mexico, Belize, and Honduras.

Marine Mammals of the Western Caribbean Sea

Projects we collaborate with

Whales of Guerrero

FINS Scientist Eric Angel Ramos has been collaborating closely with the Whales of Guerrero since 2016 and a guest scientist to the project. The Whales of Guerrero is based out of la Barra de Potosi and conducts important baseline research with marine animals along the Pacific coast of Guerrero, Mexico.  

Skin diseases of bottlenose dolphins

The social lives and feeding behavior of rough-toothed dolphins

The social lives and feeding behavior of rough-toothed dolphins

We documented the first cases of lobomycosis-like disease in dolphins in Belize in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific coast of Guerrero, Mexico. Read the publication in Disease of Aquatic Mammals

The social lives and feeding behavior of rough-toothed dolphins

The social lives and feeding behavior of rough-toothed dolphins

The social lives and feeding behavior of rough-toothed dolphins

We're investigating the feeding and social behaviors of the rough-toothed dolphin population found off the coast of Guerrero, Mexico.

Interspecies interactions between whales and dolphins

Interspecies interactions between whales and dolphins

Interspecies interactions between whales and dolphins

Several species of dolphins regularly interact with humpback whales at our field site. We're using drone-based observations of their behaviors to better understand what happens during these events and the drivers for these occurrences.

Aberrant behavior of a humpback whale

Interspecies interactions between whales and dolphins

Interspecies interactions between whales and dolphins

We are studying the interactions between an aberrant humpback whale we documented interacting with many different marine species.

Spy on the whales with us

The humpback whales of Guerrero, Mexico.

The wild humpback whale

Copyright © 2024 FINS - All Rights Reserved.

Powered by GoDaddy Website Builder