Plastic bags or come through the illegal use of dynamite to catch fish to life. Even gunshot wounds were discovered on dolphins. To save first german Croatian dolphin protection project to the last “Adriatic Dolphin” from extinction, the dolphins e.V. (GRD) is committed to the rescue including one or more protected areas the company for setting up. For this purpose, the areas of importance for reproduction and diet of the Adriatic Dolphin must be localized through regular patrols, censuses, and photo identification. Only when these data are available, the Croatian Government will establish corresponding reserves.

The project to “Rescue the last Adriatic Dolphin” was founded in 1999 by the GRD with vets of the University of Zagreb headed by Prof. Dr. Hrvoje Gomercic. Already in the 1980s have Croatian scientists specializing in marine mammals and significantly contributed to the existing 1995 dolphin protection laws. However, due to lack of finances, they were on laboratory work, so the investigation of dead dolphins, limited. With the passing of the first GRD patrol boat and other equipment in June 2000, could finally begin the Croatian animal rights activists with the important field work and thus now also are able to save whales alive stranded or lost in the numerous coves of the Croatian Adriatic coast and the estuaries and dolphins. The community project is under the auspices of the Croatian Ministry of the environment and according to the provisions of the international agreement on protection of cetaceans in the Black Sea and Mediterranean ACCOBAMS (agreement on the conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic area), which was ratified by Croatia in the year 2000 and has been in force since June 2001. GRD, Ulrike Kirsch