Supporting international conservation research directed by local scientists has been a remarkably productive effort by CSI for over two decades. It has been an investment in significant scientific knowledge, the futures of good and talented people, and for potential solutions to problems. A recent, excellent example of where some of your contribution to CSI goes is the "Photoidentification Study of Bottlenose Dolphins at the Paracas National Reserve, Peru". This project compels us to consider a sobering dilemma undoubtedly common in many of the world's poorer coastal regions where all available resources are vital to human survival. Julio C. Reyes, Mónica Echegaray S., and Nelly de Paz C. of ACOREMA (Areas Costeras y Recursos Marinos) in Pisco, Peru, completed a 13 month project in January that documented two bottlenose dolphin groups. One ranged over 50 km into waters where they were threatened by directed takes for human consumption and pollution. The other dolphin group was restricted to the Reserve, with a range of only about 11 km, but threatened by dynamite fishing. All species of dolphins suffered habitat encroachment by uncontrolled development of shellfish farming. El Niño destroyed many people's livelihood, worsened impoverished conditions, and forced many changes. In Paracas Bay some fishermen turned to scallop farming. Today 48 legal and perhaps 75 illegal farms have filled Paracas Bay with buoys, nylon lines and special gear that often entangle marine life.

Including the bottlenose dolphins, eight species of cetaceans were recorded during the study, including Burmeister's porpoise, dusky dolphin, long-snouted common dolphin, melon-headed whale, rough-toothed dolphin, pygmy killer whale, and humpback whale. The smaller species are often targets of a continual informal trade in dolphin meat, in this region sold door to door as human food. Open displays of dolphin meat in markets is unlikely because the capture of small cetaceans is banned in Peru, but a lack of official will and limited resources makes controls more unlikely. The potential exists for significant impacts on a local cetacean population, but must be balanced against the need for people to survive in difficult times. Quantifying, much less monitoring, the take is extraordinarily difficult, and requires incredible initiative, tact and perseverance. ACOREMA's Julio Reyes has excelled at this difficult work since CSI first helped to support his efforts in the 1980's. His international reputation belies the fact that Julio and ACOREMA operate with very limited resources, unable to afford what many graduate students in Europe and North America consider basic needs.