Our Research
Long-term fin photo-identification
Cape Fear Dolphin Research conducts long-term, longitudinal fin photo-identification of bottlenose dolphins along the southeastern North Carolina coast under NOAA General Authorization LOC# 28811. Each survey builds a growing catalog of individually recognizable dorsal fins, allowing us to track residency, movement, associations, and life-history events over years and decades.
Our data are shared with the Mid-Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin Catalog (MABDC) curated by Duke University, and with UNCW's Marine Mammal Stranding Program (MMSP), contributing to a regional understanding of bottlenose dolphin populations along the U.S. Atlantic coast.
Survey Area
Our research surveys cover the coastal waters of Brunswick and New Hanover Counties in southeastern North Carolina — the Intracoastal Waterway, the Cape Fear River, and the nearshore ocean — from Sunset Beach through Wrightsville Beach.
CFDR survey area — Brunswick & New Hanover Counties, NC. Beach labels show public access points along the survey range.