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Help Md. scientists track dolphins and Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem

By Sandy Kozel

WASHINGTON — If your holiday weekend takes you to the Chesapeake Bay, you can help scientists study dolphins and the body of water where they live.

University of Maryland scientist Helen Bailey launched a web-based app last year inviting the public to report the locations of dolphins they see in the bay.

“Dolphins are wonderful animals to watch; they’re so fascinating,” Bailey said.

Finding out where dolphins are won’t just alert scientists to their location but will also help them learn about the bay’s ecosystem.

“Most likely, they’re going to be coming into the bay because they’re following their food. They’re following fish,” she said.

The site is free to use, but you have to sign up and create a password before you can report a sighting and view a map of sightings reported so far.

“The more eyes we have on the water, the better to report dolphin sightings,” Bailey told WTOP last June. “We think that citizens can make very good citizen scientists.”

To report a dolphin sighting, go to Chesapeake Dolphin Watch.

WTOP’s Michelle Basch contributed to this report.

The Space Place: Moonlight meteors and December sky sights

By Greg Redfern
Unlike last year, the D.C. region is forecast to have clear skies on the night of Dec. 13, the peak of the Geminid Meteor Shower. But we will have to contend with a bright Waxing Gibbous Moon that will interfere with the number of meteors we can see as faint meteors will be washed out due to bright moonlight. All is not lost, as each year the Geminid Meteor Shower reliably produces a large number of meteors per hour (75-100+) in a dark sky, with many of them being bright enough to be classified as fireballs — a meteor that is brighter than the planet Venus. To get an idea how bright this is you can see Venus in the Southwest sky right after sunset. Bottom line — these fireballs are bright!
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