Our Projects: PERU

Since 1999, GRD has been supporting its Peruvian partner organisation ACOREMA, who established a marine conservation center in Pisco. ACOREMA works for the protection of small cetaceans living in Peruvian waters (campaigning against the hunt of dolphins and dynamite fishing for example) and has received several prizes for its excellent work.

Help for Peru after Earthquake

On August 15, 2007, a terrible earthquake with a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale struck southern Peru. Its epicenter was located in the Pacific Ocean off the city port of Pisco. In just 3.5 minutes, nearly 80 percent of the city and large parts of the Ica-Paracas region were devastated, leaving damage, death, pain and more poverty.

The waters off Pisco are home to our adoption dolphins: they are bottlenose dolphins living in two bays of the Paracas Peninsula year-round. A teacher’s guide on marine ecology and dolphin conservation funded by GRD was distributed to over 900 school teachers in the Ica-Paracas region last spring. Many of the schools have collapsed and have not yet resumed normal operation of the classes.

The news about the horrible catastrophe came as a shock to us. We were terribly worried about our Peruvian colleagues. Fortunately they survived. However, they have all lost their homes completely or in part and now live with friends and relatives in Lima or Ica. The marine conservation center, including furniture and equipment, was heavily damaged, but ACOREMA is trying to continue its work and start the reconstruction. Monica Echegaray, ACOREMA’s president, and the biologist Julio Reyes told us about the many e-mails they have received from all over the world and that many organizations – including GRD – have offered direct aid and promised not to leave them alone in this difficult situation. They emphasized: "The expressions of concern and solidarity from people and friend institutions has been most valuable and encouraging. There are no material goods comparable; all the empathy received in these difficult weeks will be in our hearts forever."

The situation has not changed much since then. The debris is cleared off, a process which takes its time. Once this is completed the authorities want to tackle the reconstruction of the city. It will probably take another 3 to 4 months until the area is cleared. Many people still live on the streets and sleep in tents. There is still no running water. The water must be hauled with trucks into town where it is distributed. Hotels and restaurants have not yet resumed operation, only a few stores have reopened.

Help for Peru: Pieces for Paracas

Pieces for Paracas is the name of our campaign to raise funds for the reconstruction of our hitherto successful dolphin conservation project in Paracas, Peru, which has been devastated by the earthquake

Bit by bit we want to help the people in Paracas to restore a bit of normality.

This includes functioning schools, where marine ecology plays a vital role because the students are tomorrow’s decision-makers;

the continuation of the monitoring surveys of our adoption dolphins, which are quite well-known by now, and the expansion of their protection (and popularity);

and the reconstruction of the marine conservation center – piece by piece and brick by brick.

Piece by piece – This also means that you can help with your donation. Any amount of donation, no matter how small or big, will help in reconstructing the project.

We need your help!

Join our relief aid for Paracas, Peru, support Pieces for Paracas! Donations indicating "Peru" will be allocated to our Pieces for Paracas campaign.

Donate with PayPal

Please use the following bank account for your donation for dolphin conservation:

Provisional Office and Children’s Aid

´"AVINA Foundation" from Costa Rica and "Cetacean Society International" from the USA have provided emergency aid, which allows ACOREMA to operate a kind of provisional office. The first funds transferred by GRD were used to support a children’s aid project: many children have been left homeless and traumatized. They stay in camps, the earthquake has left them in a state of anxiety.

In cooperation with the Paracas National Park authorities, ACOREMA has organized a puppet show on dolphins and distributed cetacean coloring books. This will help the kids in some way, distracting them from the pain and sorrow they had to suffer, and they will learn something about dolphins at the same time. We would like to thank everyone who has made a donation to support this children’s aid! Our special thanks for their generous support goes to Delphin Technology and Sycoma/Pro Clima/Moll bauökonomische Produkte GmbH.

Help for Reconstruction and Continuity of our Peru Project

We must ensure that what has been built up until now – respect for dolphins and a raised environmental awareness – is not lost. Encouraged by the many offers of help from all around the world, our friends of ACOREMA have drawn up a comprehensive list of measures to continue their dolphin and marine conservation efforts in the coming year. It includes the following steps:

- Resumption of regular monitoring surveys of the bottlenose dolphins in the Supay and Paracas bays and distribution of information material at main tourist centers.

- Continuation of the education program: Since the marine conservation center can no longer be used for the workshops and power supply has not yet been re-established, ACOREMA is preparing a lecture program on flipcharts. This portable equipment can be carried from school to school and may also be used in public areas.

- Rebuilding the destroyed Environmental Interpretative Center which has proved to play a vital part in the dolphin conservation efforts with its permanent exhibition and its interpretative rooms. The Center was very popular with locals and tourists alike.
Denise Wenger

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Scientific Report

In the following, you will find a summary of the detailed scientific report with which ACOREMA's presidents, Mónica Echegaray and Julio Reyes, informed us about what has been done and achieved so far. ACOREMA is conducting a long-term study of dolphins living in the Pisco/Paracas area in southern Peru. Two resident groups of dolphins and their home ranges have been determined.

About 60 individual dolphins have been identified by means of their dorsal fins. Behavioral studies were conducted and data on group size, diving depth, and distance from the shore were collected.

The human-induced threats the dolphins are facing include dynamite fishing, marine pollution, reduction of their food through overfishing, and habitat destruction caused by scallop farming, being developed particularly in the Paracas National Reserve. Moreover, ACOREMA's studies have revealed that at least seventeen dolphins have died in the area since January 2000 through direct hunting and as bycatch. The meat was sold in the markets, and even door to door. Furthermore, whale and dolphin strandings were studied. Net marks, injuries caused by harpoons or missing fins revealed the cause of their death.

Strandings and Interaction with Fisheries

ACOREMA recorded four cetacean species in the area during the 2000 study period: Burmeister's porpoises, dusky dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and a sperm whale. Two of the dusky dolphins and a sperm whale calf were found dead on the shore. Regular monitoring of the local fishing port yielded a total of seventeen caught dolphins, including Burmeister's porpoises, dusky dolphins, and bottlenose dolphins. They were either directly hunted or had died as bycatch in gillnets, which are set up to catch rays and sharks. Since there exists a market for dolphin meat, dolphins are not released from the nets even if they are still alive.

Habitat Degradation

Dynamite fishing is a big problem in the area. It is also practised within Paracas National Reserve and, in particular, in the habitat of the resident group of 15 dolphins. Dynamite fishing is prohibited; however, there is no effective enforcement. Further habitat encroachment takes place through scallop farming. The dolphins were observed changing their course to avoid the farms. The dolphins also suffer from a reduced food supply caused by overfishing of anchovies. Apparently to improve their hunting strategies, they tend to aggregate in groups of more than 30 animals in this area, which is rather unusual for dolphins living in coastal areas. The largest school of dolphins sighted near Pisco in 2000 included about 60 individuals. Marine pollution poses another threat. Not only the region's fishmeal plants, but also waste in the form of plastic bottles and bags, pieces of nets, batteries and other objects, pollute water and coasts alike. They constitute potential threats to dolphins, including entanglement and accidental ingestion.

Dolphin Studies

During the regular boat excursions and land-based observations only bottlenose dolphins were sighted. The studies included extended behavioral studies. They have revealed that, during hunting, dolphins fenced the fish against the shore. In the presence of fishing boats, the dolphins were indifferent. They only left when the boat approached them head-on or if the fishermen used certain noise-producing devices in order to drive fish into the nets.

There are two resident dolphin groups living in the Pisco area. 45 animals of the larger group, which can, for the most part, be found between the Paracas bay south of Pisco and Tamo de More north of Pisco, have been identified. The smaller group, whose home range exclusively covers Paracas National Reserve, comprises 15 individuals including two calves. Close observation of the dolphins has shown that some of them bear dark grey scars on their skin, so-called "tatoo marks" caused by a viral infection. Some of them also had larger depigmented areas on their skin, probably resulting from a fungal infection.

GRD's Adopt-A-Dolphin Program

Many people are interested in contributing to ACOREMA's efforts to protect the dolphins. Donations and dolphin adoptions thus enabled GRD to provide considerable financial support to ACOREMA, whose important and professional work can be considered a milestone in South America. Julio and Mónica were very pleased about this contribution and thank everybody for their support.
Denise Wenger