TAMU-CC and the Oceans and Wildlife Institute Team Up to Train TPWD Crews on Dolphin Disentanglement

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – When the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) received permits to resume gillnet sampling in Texas bays, the authorization came with an important requirement — TPWD crews needed detailed training in responding to dolphin entanglement.

For Dr. Dara Orbach, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Associate Professor of Marine Biology, who has a long-standing relationship with TPWD, that requirement offered an opportunity to bring her marine mammal research to directly aid crews working on the water. When TPWD turned to Orbach to design and lead the workshop, she then approached the Oceans and Wildlife Institute (OWI) for their expertise in dolphin disentanglement.

“I think this training is really important,” Orbach said. “I want to know that if a dolphin does get caught, that it is going to be handled properly.”

Gillnets are a standard tool in fisheries science, but have not been used by TPWD since May 2024, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Office of Law Enforcement and Office of Protected Resources launched an investigation into alleged violations of the Marine Mammal Protection and Endangered Species Acts, related to rare incidental occurrences of dolphins and sea turtles becoming entangled.

Orbach’s portion of the training, held at the Texas State Aquarium’s Port Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue, went beyond the mechanics of freeing an animal. She familiarized TPWD personnel with dolphins found in local waters, their anatomy, physiology, behavior, and stressors they face, including contaminants, noise, nutritional stress, vessel interactions, and other environmental factors.

The training also gave Orbach an opportunity to explain why dolphins matter to the larger coastal ecosystem. One of her students is studying how local fishing guides perceive dolphins; a sentiment that is more complicated than it would seem.

“A lot of the guides recognize that their clients are really excited to see the dolphins, so they do see their value in terms of customer satisfaction,” Orbach said. “At the same time, the dolphins make it harder for them to catch fish.”

A pair of Islander alumni, OWI President and CEO Jesse Gilbert ’07, ’17, ’21 and Chief Wildlife Officer Sarah Zigmond ’09, paired the classroom knowledge with a different kind of preparation. Their portion of the workshop was hands-on, giving TPWD a chance to practice, both in the classroom and poolside, using simulated dolphins and the same nets they’ll deploy in the field. The training, designed to replicate the physical challenges of entanglement, focused on one central lesson — preparedness.

“The natural instinct when you see a dolphin in a net, is to get in there and get that dolphin out as quickly and safely as possible,” Gilbert said. “However, effective wildlife response requires a deliberate, safe, and proven approach by the crews.”

Instead, TPWD crews were taught to protect themselves first and allow the dolphin to settle, if possible. Once the animal can reach the surface to breathe, responders can assess the entanglement and determine whether to unwrap the dolphin or cut the net. The nets can be sacrificed, the dolphin cannot.

“We can only stress that human safety comes first,” Zigmond said. “If you’re not safe, the animal is not going to be safe. We are honored to provide this training to our colleagues at TPWD alongside Dr. Orbach to ensure the crews can continue collecting this valuable data the safest way possible.”

That preparation begins before a crew sets out on the water, with proper personal protective equipment, disentanglement equipment, and contacts available if additional resources are needed.

The hands-on training gave TPWD Regional Director Perry Trial and his crews a useful way to think through a response.

“There is not necessarily a standard approach to disentangling a dolphin, but there are a number of factors that need to be considered when attempting to free an entangled dolphin,” Trial said.

The need for that preparation exists alongside the purpose of gillnet surveys. TPWD has used the nets since the mid-1970s to monitor adult and subadult finfish in Texas bays, producing long-term information on abundance, size and age structure, life history, and genetics. According to Trial, entangled dolphins have been encountered in 0.13% of all nets used in the program’s history, with only 12 mortalities resulting from entanglement.

For Orbach, the training reflects what can happen when academic research, industry expertise, and government come together.

“It’s a chance for the core knowledge about these animals to be integrated into the policies by people who actually make decisions,” Orbach said.

This collaboration could also have impact beyond the immediate TPWD requirement. The program was designed with an eye toward adapting the training for other organizations, and could eventually reach other state agencies, researchers, aquarium personnel, as well as the commercial fishing industry.

For TAMU-CC, the project offers a practical extension of the university’s coastal research, carrying knowledge gathered on the water into decisions that protect the dolphins that live there.