Off the coast of Lošinj Island, students work alongside marine biologists to study dolphins, sea turtles, and the health of the Adriatic Sea.
A bottlenose dolphin surfaces fifty meters off the research vessel, exhales, and dives. Its dorsal fin (nicked, scarred, unique) has appeared in the Blue World Institute's photo-ID dataset for over twenty years. The SFS Center for Conservation of Marine Megafauna sits on Lošinj Island in the northern Adriatic, where cargo ships, trawlers, and tourist ferries crisscross waters that still harbor resident dolphins, foraging loggerhead sea turtles, and the seagrass meadows anchoring entire food webs.
Students work alongside the Blue World Institute (the only nonprofit dedicated to marine megafauna research in the Croatian Adriatic) conducting boat-based photo-identification surveys, deploying hydrophones to measure underwater noise, and examining live turtles and assisting at necropsies in the sea turtle rescue center. Field trips reach Susak Island to assess nesting-beach suitability under climate change, Brijuni National Park for marine conservation management, and the griffon vulture rescue center at Beli on Cres Island, where the last roughly one hundred families cling to the cliffs.
Worked through the gut contents of northern Adriatic loggerheads to build a picture of what these turtles eat, and how much plastic and other marine litter they swallow along with their food.
Tour boats are on the water far more often than research vessels. Students mined their photo IDs for who swims with whom, then tested the result against the center's own surveys.
Miniature tags could follow hatchlings through the years when loggerheads simply disappear from view, but only if the tag changes nothing. Students tested whether it does.
Dolphins follow trawlers for an easy meal, and they also favor certain depths. Students worked the archipelago's sightings to separate the pull of the nets from the shape of the seabed.
Students live in a former hotel with ten rooms of two to four, en-suite bathrooms with hot water, and shared closets. Days run roughly 7 AM to 7 PM, alternating between shore-based seminars and boat-based fieldwork: twenty hours of dolphin photo-ID surveys over five weeks, drone flights for turtle abundance, and sea turtle rehabilitation at the rescue center.
SFS students become part of Veli Lošinj's island community, eating at harborside restaurants, learning Mediterranean maritime culture from local fishers, and collaborating with Blue World Institute researchers on the only marine megafauna research program in the Croatian Adriatic. Data feeds directly into EU Natura 2000 marine protected area designations.
Enrolling now for Spring 2027, Summer 2027, and Fall 2027.
