Spotlight: Carolina
Carolina Menchaca interviewed by J.J. Ramberg
The word that comes to mind when I read @gingerheart86 (Carolina’s) posts on Discord is “sunny.” She has this incredibly kind and happy way of speaking that, combined with her passion for her work (and the work of NA!) and her incredibly deep knowledge in her field, makes her a really wonderful contributor to our community.
Where do you live? Did you grow up there?
I live in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. I was born here, but at the age of 7 my family moved to Rivera, a smaller city up north next to Brasil. That’s why I’ve got Portuguese as a second tongue. At the age of 18 I came back to Montevideo to go to the University to study biology and I’ve been living here since then.
Tell us about your work.
I’ve been working as a research assistant in the Toninas Project (yaqupachauy.org) for more than 12 years. I started as a graduate student and then I did my master’s degree on ecology and evolution. My main line of investigation is on behavioral ecology, social behavior and acoustic communication of the Lahille’s bottlenose dolphin (tonina is the common name for this dolphin here). In particular, my study focuses on assessing whistle variation (a particular frequency modulated sound dolphins emit) and the role these sounds play in promoting associations between photo-identified adult individuals.
Why is it important?
The toninas population of Uruguay is very small (approximately 70 individuals), coastal, and most of the individuals are resident — which means it’s very vulnerable to extinction and exposed to many threats including bycatch, habitat degradation, pollution, effects of the climate change, and other potential harms from human activities around the coast. The animals belong to a subspecies of the common bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus gephyreus, which only lives in the coasts of Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Brazil (total abundance around 600 individuals).
What brought you to this work?
As a kid, I grew up watching documentaries about marine mammals and the ocean and got so excited about it. I remember I felt so curious about how these animals as mammals with terrestrial ancestors got adapted to the marine environment and survived. I was fascinated by their physiology, behavior, and ecology.
What is the most fascinating thing you’ve seeing while doing this work?
It’s always fascinating to see the animals and listen to their vocalizations in situ during our boat surveys. I remember once that we were waiting for them to cross through a rocky point where there’s a lighthouse. (We were following this group that was travelling west and we got ahead of them). We knew it was full of fur seals swimming in the area. I couldn’t see them but I was listening and taking notes while my friends were watching. By the time the group started passing they split up in two subgroups and I realized they were there because they starting whistling a lot, like “Come on people, keep going, don’t get distracted by these funny creatures”. It was awesome.
How is your work connected to promoting biodiversity?
We are promoting the Lahile’s bottlenose dolphin by doing research and environmental education activities with the local communities. By promoting the conservation of the bottlenose dolphin which is a charismatic, umbrella and keystone (sub)species, we are promoting the conservation of the entire marine coastal ecosystem where it occurs.
How did you get connected to NewAtlantis?
A colleague from DeSciWorld told me “Look there’s a DAO related to marine conservation, I think you may want to know more about these people”. I jumped into the discord immediately :)
Thanks for joining us! What got your excited or interested in what NewAtlantis is doing?
I really like that all the work that is being done in NA has a strong and robust scientific background. NA is gathering the most talented scientists related to marine conservation to design a fine tailored model that promotes ocean regeneration by joining biodiversity metagenomics and marine protected areas to give them true and viable business value. I’m really bullish on the concept of biodiversity credits being generated and sold by MPAs.
What gets you excited about DeSci?
I think DeSci is promoting a true paradigm shift in science as we know it and enhancing its status as a public good. I hope it makes science more accessible, unrestricted, unbiased and democratic across the globe. And also, as a second opportunity to start again, I hope we as a scientific community can overcome not only the structural problems we want to overcome (publishing, funding, data sharing, etc) but also issues related to gender and race bias in science.
