Protecting Amazon River Dolphins: Prodelphinus and Delfin Cruise Collaboration

An Alliance for Conservation along the Amazon’s Mighty Waters by Mira Guerra Garcia Novak, Prodelphinus intern.

At Prodelphinus, we established an agreement with Delfín Amazon Cruises. The partnership focuses on sustainable tourism and environmental conservation. Together, we have undertaken several projects aimed at improving the quality of life of river cetaceans in the region.

Thanks to this partnership with Delfín Amazon Cruises, we have implemented initiatives that support the protection and well-being of river dolphins. These projects include dolphin research and population monitoring. In addition, they promote environmental education and conservation awareness among visitors.

One strategy involved conducting in situ dolphin observations during cruise excursions. This provided a unique opportunity to study their natural behavior in the wild, allowing researchers to collect valuable data on their distribution, social interactions and movement patterns.

Night boat trip in search of wildlife sightings captured by Kim Mangel. 

In addition to direct observations, hydrophones were placed during the excursions to record the sounds emitted by the dolphins. These acoustic data provided additional information on the communication and acoustic ecology of dolphins in the Pacaya Samiria region.

As part of this collaboration, informative and educational talks were also held for both local communities and the tourist public visiting the Pacaya Samiria aboard the cruise. These talks provided a platform to share research findings and promote the conservation of dolphins and their habitat among residents and visitors.

Founder of Prodelphinus (Johana Alfaro) aboard the cruise, presenting about the local wildlife and conservation.

During the dolphin cruise excursions, we have been able to document and observe other species such as: sloths (Melursus ursinus), toucans (Ramphastidae), boas (Boa constrictor), yellow frog (Dendropsophus minutus), tarantulas (Theraphosidae) etc.

Different species observed in the amazon captured by Kim Mangel.