Every Fin Cataloged. Every Stranding Counted.
A bottlenose dolphin exhales fifty meters from the harbor wall. Behind it, a cargo ship slides through the channel. Lošinj Island sits in the northern Adriatic, one of Europe's most trafficked seas, where resident dolphins, loggerhead turtles, and Posidonia seagrass meadows survive alongside trawler fleets and ferry routes. The Blue World Institute has tracked every fin and stranding here for twenty years. The pressure is not slowing down.
Most mornings start on a research vessel: photographing dorsal fins for the photo-ID catalog, deploying hydrophones to capture dolphin calls, tracking movements by theodolite from the cliffs above the harbor. Afternoons shift to the rescue center, where loggerheads arrive with trawler injuries and stomachs full of plastic. On Cres Island, the last hundred griffon vulture families in Croatia remind you how thin the margin is.
What You'll Do
Dolphin Photo-ID Surveys
Board research vessels for twenty hours of boat-based surveys over five weeks, photographing dorsal fins to identify individuals and track population dynamics for Blue World's 20-year dataset.
Sea Turtle Veterinary Care
Join the rescue center's daily rounds: blood sampling, ultrasound, wound care, and laser therapy on live patients. Lab cultures and necropsies reveal disease, parasites, and plastic.
Drone & Satellite Tracking
Fly drones over coastal waters to assess at-surface turtle abundance and deploy satellite tracking equipment on rehabilitated loggerheads to monitor post-release movements.
Cetacean Bioacoustics
Deploy hydrophones from research vessels to record dolphin whistles and clicks, then analyze recordings in the lab alongside twenty years of Blue World acoustic data.
Brijuni & Griffon Vulture Excursions
Visit Brijuni National Park to study Croatia's best-preserved marine area, then travel to the Beli rescue center on Cres Island, which protects the country's last ~100 griffon vulture families.
Susak Island Nesting Assessment
Sail to Susak Island for a six-hour field exercise assessing beach suitability for loggerhead turtle nesting under climate change scenarios.
Field Sites
From the harbor at Veli Lošinj, the entire northern Adriatic becomes your research station. Most fieldwork is boat-based.
Veli Lošinj
Home base steps from the Blue World Institute and the sea turtle rescue facility.
Open Adriatic Waters
Twenty hours of photo-ID and abundance surveys by research vessel, plus hydrophone deployments.
Brijuni, Susak & Cres Islands
Nesting beach climate assessments and the only registered griffon vulture rescue center in Croatia.
Dolphins by Their Fins. Turtles from the Air.
The Blue World Institute has tracked every dorsal fin and every stranding in the northern Adriatic for twenty years. Students join that dataset: twenty hours of boat-based photo-ID surveys over five weeks, hydrophone deployments capturing dolphin vocalizations and shipping noise, drone flights counting turtles at the surface. In the rescue center, loggerheads arrive with trawler injuries and stomachs full of plastic. On Cres Island, the last hundred griffon vulture families in Croatia cling to the cliffs. The data feeds directly into EU Natura 2000 site designations.
Rigorous & Interdisciplinary
Five courses thread cetacean ecology, sea turtle veterinary medicine, and EU conservation policy through daily fieldwork on and off the water. Students learn photo-ID against a twenty-year population baseline, run lab diagnostics and assist at necropsies in the rescue center, and debate conservation triage at Natura 2000 sites, all converging in a Directed Research project for Blue World Institute.
Courses
Five courses totaling 18 credits, including a Directed Research capstone and Croatian language course
Twenty hours of boat-based photo-ID surveys, theodolite tracking from shore, hydrophone deployments, and species identification drawing on Blue World's 20-year population dataset.
View Syllabus (PDF)Hands-on turtle care from health assessments and diagnostics to necropsy analysis, satellite tracking, drone abundance surveys, and plastic ingestion investigation.
View Syllabus (PDF)Conservation triage, Natura 2000 policy, and stakeholder negotiations through field trips to Brijuni National Park, Susak Island's prospective nesting beaches, and the Beli griffon vulture center.
View Syllabus (PDF)Beginner Croatian at A1/A2 level with cultural excursions to Zagreb, Zadar, and the Apoxyomenos Museum in Mali Lošinj, plus beach clean-ups and community hikes.
View Syllabus (PDF)Twelve days of field data for Blue World Institute: past projects include dolphin abundance estimation, trawler impact analysis, and epibiont loading on loggerhead turtles.
View Syllabus (PDF)
Ready to Study in Croatia?
Now enrolling for Spring 2027 and Fall 2027.
Dates & Costs
Semester program: 15 weeks, 18 credits. Financial aid and SFS scholarships available.
