The Amazon River Dolphin Research Program is an innovative research project, nonprofit, backed by the Federal University of Pará Western of Pará(UFOPA), with support from Whale Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and ICMBio and is fully dedicated to the preservation and conservation of aquatic mammals that inhabit the Amazon basin.

The scope of this research project focuses on ecological studies on the populations of both species in the Amazon, as well as the impact that human activities generate putting these animals at serious risk to their survival. Daily river dolphins are killed horribly with sticks, machetes and spears, and their flesh used to be used as a bait fish piracatinga. This fish and little used in Brazil and then shipped to Colombia and to the Southeast and Midwest of Brazil where it is well received and sold in top quality restaurants.

The project has two strands of research: a fundamentally ecological, where within the natural habitat of animals, the Biological Reserve of Trombetas River, these will be studied and identified by a pioneer research in Amazonia. Through the application of photo-identification techniques we estimate the dynamics / population variability of animals. The other aspect of this research project is largely social, where within many fishermen communities seek to study and collect socio-economic and environmental impacts from many families of fishermen so that they can better understand and assess the impact of human activities on these animals.

Through extensive studies and environmental education campaigns we will try to minimize the mortality of animals and to alert the public about the environmental crimes that have occurred and decimating hundreds of animals a year.Programa Botos do Pará