Protect Wild Dolphins Alliance, a not-for-profit organization based in the Florida Keys, has awarded nearly $140,000 in grants during 2023-2024 to protect and preserve marine wildlife and coastal habitats across the state of Florida. They raised the money from specialty license plates.
The sale of the ‘Protect Marine Wildlife’ specialty license plate supports numerous causes including an ongoing dolphin population and behavioral ecology program in the Upper Florida Keys through enhanced technologies for dolphin population studies; capacity building for marine mammal research in Florida Bay through Florida Bay small Cetacean remote biopsy sampling; and comparative acoustic monitoring between wild dolphins and managed care environments through bioacoustics research analysis.
Grant recipients include Florida Institute of Technology, University of Florida Animal Rescue, Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center, The Turtle Hospital, The Coastal Stewards, and Dolphins Plus Marine Mammal Responder. The funding also supported Clearwater Marine Aquarium through a $25,000 hurricane relief and disaster recovery grant for emergency care support for threatened, endangered, and protected marine wildlife.
Florida’s marine wildlife is vital to the ecosystem because it helps maintain the balance of the ocean’s complex food web. The diverse marine life in Florida’s coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests provide food, habitat, and other benefits.
Innovative projects like the license plate may be key to funding environmental and suainability projects in the U.S. in the current political climate. The organization said other larger organizations, such as Hubbs Seaworld Research Institute (HSRI), are anticipating changes in federal spending that could significantly impact their ability to conduct critical conservation research.
