Presentation about the main characteristics of each cetacean species that can be found in the Mediterranean Sea, more specifically in the Adriatic Sea. The most sighted species in the coastline of Montenegro is the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

Explanation of the behavioral states defined by DMAD that a group of dolphins can have: travel, travel-fast, travel-diving, diving, surface feeding, socializing, milling, resting, bow riding, interaction boat and surfing.

Presentation of the data sheets that we used to collect all the information during both land and boat surveys.

Before each survey, it is important to look for the environmental data for the period of time the survey will take place. Information such as tide, swell, temperature, Beaufort, cloud, glare wind speed, wind direction, moon phase and percentage of illumination will be recorded in both data sheet and laptop. This information need to be taken at the beginning of the survey, every hour and every time there are visible changes in sea state, clouds cover or glare. Introduction to ZyGrib software, program that we used for collecting the temperature, wind speed and wind direction of a specific point at different hours of the day .

For realizing our land surveys of dolphins, we have to learn how to use the Theodolite. It is an optical precision instrument used for measuring angles between designated visible points in the horizontal and vertical planes. In land surveys, DMAD uses it to identify the exact location of dolphins in the bay of Montenegro (coordinates). During the trainings, we learnt how to setup the Theodolite, which conditions need to be consider for choosing a new station, and how to take the correct data given by the Theodolite.

Presentation of the protocols on how to enter in an Excel file the data collected during both land and boat surveys. This data needs to be enter the same day the survey was realized, and needs to be review for a second person before being send to Selina Brouwer. In this way, DMAD tries to avoid extra mistakes.

Pythagoras is a Theodolite program designed to assist researchers in collecting, managing, and analyzing data. This software help us to convert horizontal and vertical angles read by Theodolite in geographic coordinates in order to define boat and dolphin group positions and subsequently map them using ArcGIS.

Presentation of the different part of the hydrophone and of the protocols of how to setup the equipment on the field. One of the recommendations was to be really careful with the microphone part, since it is really sensitive and easy to break.

During the two modules of photo identification, Aylin Akkaya taught us the importance of the photo-identification, a topic that can help us to discover partners like site fidelity, population size, migration, status of a population, threat assessment, identification of key habitats, social structure of a population, offspring cycle. Then, she presented to us Discovery software and how to use it for identifying dolphin’s pictures.

We received four modules of GIS that were directed by Aylin Akkaya and Tim Awbery. The goal of these trainings was to not only refresh and learn basics tools of QGIS software, but also to realize with real data of the organization maps that are currently used in important documents such as annual reports, scientific articles, conference abstracts, among others.

At the end of these training, we ended up with four maps:

• Surface area of each land survey station in Montenegro and the representation by colors of how many hours of survey each station has until the moment.

• Density of bottlenose dolphins along the coast of Montenegro on each land survey area.

• Overlap of bottlenose dolphins sightings with marine traffic density (fishing vessels and fishing boats).

As for the acoustics topic, Aylin Akkaya gave us one module presenting the importance of acoustics for cetaceans, the different type of sounds that they can emit, how to represent those sounds in graphs (audiographs) and how the anthropogenic noise affects cetaceans.

Finally, we had one module of statistics presented by Aylin Akkaya, in which we did not use R software, but we focused more on basic statistics and how do you apply them in a research. Since we did not have more time for more modules about this topic, Aylin is planing one more module via online about how to use R in marine mammals research.

As an extra help, Aylin Akkaya, with a PhD in Marine Mammals’ Behavior, decided to give us a quick talk about some tips to have in mind if we are planning to do a PhD.