Daniela C. Silva

I am a graduate student in the Coastal Marine and Wetlands Master of Science Program at Coastal Carolina University. I have a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biology from the Universidade do Vale do Paraiba in Brazil. During undergraduate, I had a research project examining the interaction between artisanal fisheries and coastal dolphins in Brazil. In graduate school, I volunteer with the SC Marine Mammal Stranding Network and manage an undergraduate independent study class entitled Monitoring Dolphin Populations under the guidance of my advisor Dr. Young.

I have always been interested on dolphins. When I realized South Carolina has limited data on bottlenose dolphins, I wanted to jump right in and fill the gap. In the past couple of years, I have been working on my master thesis project investigating bottlenose dolphin stocks in northern South Carolina. I am also working on a NC Sea Grant funded project to estimate abundance of the Southern North Carolina Estuarine System Stock.

Since we have no year-round dolphin residents, I want to find out where they go when they are out of my research area.

January 2016