Many TDP members go out on surveys, fill out forms, take pictures then go home Sunday afternoon after returning from the last survey period.

What happens to all that information? Where does it go?

Simply, members of the Science committee collate the information collected at Data Review. Collected data is checked to insure accuracy.

Abundance data has been analyzed in one format by Tomo Eguchi at the University of Montana, Bozeman. You may view the data at www.esg.montana.edu/eguchi/tursiops.

The abundance data is also available online to all researchers in collaboration with Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. The TDP abundance dataset is formatted and uploaded to OBIS-SEAMAP. (Ocean Biogeographic Information System - Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations).

This data is also downloadable and viewable in Google Earth through the OBIS-SEAMAP site. Marine mammal,
seabird and sea turtle data are being organized into a spatially referenced database. Duke University is one of the primary data providers to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System.

Photo ID images go through a rigorous process of selection to come up with matched resightings or new animals. On a regular basis the updated TDP Photo ID Catalog is sent to be included in the Mid Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin Catalog (MABDC) curated by Kim Urian.  This collection of fin identification images is a master catalog of images from collaborative groups along the Atlantic coast. By building a master catalog of identifiable fins images, the bottlenose dolphin can be studied on a more global scale.