On Wednesday, July 1st, we marked our traditional Dolphin Day.

In the morning, the popular “Treasure Hunt” game was held for children aged 6 to 12. While they were busy solving challenges, younger children created marine-themed chalk drawings on the ground and used oil pastels on paper. Face painting – a new addition to the Dolphin Day celebration this year – was a hit among all the participants; many children went home with painted designs featuring turtles, dolphins, seashells, starfish, and more. Around a hundred children took part in these activities.

In the evening, visitors to the Lošinj Marine Education Centre attended a lecture on citizen science entitled Citizens Collecting Knowledge, which introduced different ways the public can contribute to collecting valuable data on marine mammals, underwater noise, and sentinel species. Participants were encouraged to actively engage in citizen science by installing the Marine Ranger app, developed within the “LIFE DELFI project and promoted through the ECS project, the UNDERSEA app, developed as part of the project of the same name, and the iNaturalist app, used within the SAMESEA project.

We wrapped up the event with a pub quiz at the Captain’s Club, featuring eight teams of 2–5 players, with the top three teams taking home special prizes.

We would like to thank all the volunteers, SFS students and others who participated in the 34th Dolphin Day and helped ensure the continuation of this wonderful tradition.