If you’ve ever taken the ferry from Galveston to Bolivar, you’ve likely seen the beautiful bottlenose dolphin’s that call Galveston Bay their home. Further north, the Upper Galveston Bay hosts commercial and recreational fisheries. It also accommodates boat traffic supporting the second-largest petrochemical compound in the world, receives runoff from over half of Texas’s population, and is subjected to regular dredging operations. All of these activities threaten the bottlenose dolphin’s habitat.
Primarily through boat-based surveys, the GDRP studies the ecology, behavior, and health of this population and raises awareness about dolphins through various outreach and education initiatives.
When you virtually adopt or name a Galveston Bay dolphin, you become a member of the Dolphin Society and your contribution goes directly to our Galveston Bay Dolphin Research Program. Our adoption kits make meaningful and unique gifts and support Galveston Bay wildlife.
If you are giving the naming/adoption as a gift, you will be able to indicate this when completing the donation form.
Multiple people may adopt the same dolphin, but each dolphin will only be named once. Your dolphin’s name will be permanently used by the research team and will be officially included in our database.
If you have previously adopted a dolphin that is not currently available for adoption but you would like to renew the adoption of your original dolphin, please contact us at cblair@galvbay.org.
To learn more about our partner EIH, please visit their website.
Water Monitoring
With Data-Driven Information
Established in the early 1990s, Galveston Bay Foundation's Water Monitoring Team is one of the earliest citizen science water monitoring initiatives in Texas. Each month, trained volunteers self-deploy at designated sites to measure water quality and bacteria levels along Galveston Bay shorelines. This data is reported to the Texas Stream Team and Houston-Galveston Area Council to help inform decisions and fill data gaps in local, state, and national databases. Galveston Bay Foundation also uses this data to assess and adaptively manage habitat restoration projects.
View our data to learn more about your local waterway and find out about recreation saftey on Swim Guide.