Enrichment Lecture Series for our volunteers and staff

 This winter, we plan to kick off an Enrichment Lecture Series for our volunteers and staff to attend. These lectures will range in topics from stranding history, species ecology and behavior, current trends, and science and research. We will strive to create a community where all can get involved and engage in discussion with leaders in the field of marine mammalogy. 

• Saturday, February 3rd at 10AM at Jennette's Pier - William McLellan (UNCW) will be giving a talk on the 100+ year old history of strandings on the Outer Banks

• Monday, June 24th, at 5:30 PM at Jennette's Pier, Marina Doshkov (JPIER Standing Coordinator) will give a talk on general biology, threats, local sighting data, and response and rescue techniques. 

• Monday, August 19th, at 6:30 PM at Jennette's Pier, Jessica Taylor (Executive Director of the Outer Banks Center for Dolphin Research) will give a talk on freshwater lesions of bottlenose dolphins in the Roanoke Sound. 

• To register to attend, click here

August 2023:  Jennette's Pier was awarded $98K from the federal Prescott Grant Program for FY2023-2025

December 2022:  New Legislation: Marine Mammal Research and Response Act (MMRRA)  

The Marine Mammal Research and Response Act (MMRRA) was included as Title CIV in the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act (passed Dec 23, 2022). The MMRRA changes the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, including the Prescott Grant Program, expands data and results to be available in HealthMAP, and requires three reports to Congress. The Marine Mammal Response Capabilities in the Arctic report is due within one year of enactment with NMFS Alaska Region’s Protected Resources Division as lead. This report will describe the response capabilities of sick and injured marine mammals in the Arctic regions of the United States and a temporal and spatial analysis of marine mammal strandings and unusual mortality events. 

NOAA's Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response program also finalized and approved the 2022 PEIS, which expands options for new stranding agreements, such as short-term triage and rehab, and updates protocols and guidelines for stranding response.     

October 2022:  NC Aquariums Stranding Agreement was approved

Jennette's Pier applied, on behalf of North Carolina Aquariums, for a federal stranding agreement with NOAA to conduct marine mammal stranding response. With the approval of this stranding agreement in October 2022, we can now officially have a volunteer program! We are so excited to have this opportunity to grow our program on the Outer Banks!