Zora Beaty is a rising senior at Pomona College in Claremont, California studying Biology. She is interested in wildlife ecology, marine mammals, and conservation science. Zora is a Doris Duke Conservation Scholar, a parliament member of a student club People of Color Outside, and a liaison for Pomona's Biology department. Zora is also interning at NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center, where she is conducting a visual health assessment on a stock of bottlenose dolphins from North Carolina. She also loves to read, sip lattes at cafe, and explore new restaurants!

Shifting global weather patterns have exacerbated the intensity and frequency of precipitation events. Due to runoff, these events can bring an influx of freshwater into estuarine and oceanic environments, lowering the salinity of the area. Prolonged exposure to low salinity waters can result in visible physiological changes at the epidermal level. Freshwater skin disease (FWD), an emerging clinical presentation impacting coastal cetaceans, is indicated by areas of light discoloration, target-like lesions, and/or mats/overgrowth/film. The purpose of this study was to assess presence of FWD indicators in Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops erebennus) observed in Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, an estuarine environment. I hypothesized lesions are prevalent (=>50%) in this population. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the prevalence of skin lesions in dolphins from images taken during an August and September 2022 Capture Mark Recapture survey by the National Marine Fisheries Service along the coast of North Carolina. We assessed the skin and overall body condition for each animal photographed and paired these data with the sighting location and environmental data collected in the field. Out of 234 individuals (dolphins seen at any point in the survey), 75.64% (177 dolphins) had lesions (at least one indicator of FWD or other skin lesion(s) or at least one indicator of FWD and other skin lesion(s)). As environmental conditions become increasingly variable in coastal habitats, it is important to understand how these environmental stressors impact coastal marine mammals to create effective management solutions.