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Advice from Dr. Horace Dobbs, Honorary Director of
International Dolphin Watch.
I receive numerous letters requesting employment with International Dolphin Watch or asking for advice on careers.
I would like to answer all of them personally, but time just does not permit. I therefore hope you will accept this general reply to your enquiry.
International Dolphin Watch has very limited financial resources and no full- time staff. The people who work for us do so either on a voluntary basis or for very nominal payments. We are not therefore, in a position to offer paid employment.
The main function of International Dolphin Watch is to encourage others to initiate and operate projects which fulfil our aims: conservation and study of wild dolphins. We disseminate information about such projects and many others via the IDW newsletters edited by Jackie Connell,
(E-mail: jackie.connell@ntlworld.com) which are sent out at monthly intervals to Friends of IDW.
We suggest to people who want to work with dolphins that they become Friends of IDW. In this way they receive the Newsletters which give details of various dolphin projects around the world. It is then up to the individuals themselves to make contact with the project organisers if they think that their own particular expertise would be useful to the project.
Many people who wish to work with dolphins have set up their own project. To do this, initiative is more important than academic qualifications.
Because of this situation, most of those who ultimately work with wild dolphins have to subsidise their work/studies with income from other sources.
It is virtually impossible to recommend a course of study that will ultimately lead to a person being in a position to undertake research on dolphins. A degree in marine biology is not a passport for a job involving cetaceans. Many qualified scientists find it hard enough to get a job in any area of marine biology - let alone cetology.
My general advice, therefore, is that young people should pursue a career course in a subject or subjects, which they personally find interesting. They should then seek ways of applying their specialist knowledge and expertise to projects involving dolphins.
Jim Nolan, the author of Dolphin Dreamtime, decided he would use music to communicate with dolphins and other animals, whereas I was able to use my expertise as an underwater photographer and cameraman to enable me to spend time studying wild dolphins. How I did so is detailed in my books Follow a Wild Dolphin and Tale of Two Dolphins.
So you see, it really boils down to creating a niche for yourself. Good luck.
Horace Dobbs
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