Ari Daniel

She swims. She really wants that brain. Wow. She gets to the beach, and she's totally soaked. But she whips out her tools, and after a couple of hours, she manages to extract the fresh, intact brain from the recently deceased whale.

She is elated.

She is elated.

She is elated.

Camila brings it back to her lab where it joins the ranks of what she says has become the largest collection of whale and dolphin brains in all of Latin America.

Camila brings it back to her lab where it joins the ranks of what she says has become the largest collection of whale and dolphin brains in all of Latin America.

Camila brings it back to her lab where it joins the ranks of what she says has become the largest collection of whale and dolphin brains in all of Latin America.

And how she's recruiting a new generation of Brazilian researchers to roll up their sleeves to join her.

And how she's recruiting a new generation of Brazilian researchers to roll up their sleeves to join her.

And how she's recruiting a new generation of Brazilian researchers to roll up their sleeves to join her.

I'm Ari Daniel.

I'm Ari Daniel.

I'm Ari Daniel.

No. Usually the brains come to her at the Orca Institute. That was where I met up with Camila in mid-December. She was bedecked in marine mammal jewelry, dolphin earrings, a whale bracelet. You get the idea.

No. Usually the brains come to her at the Orca Institute. That was where I met up with Camila in mid-December. She was bedecked in marine mammal jewelry, dolphin earrings, a whale bracelet. You get the idea.

No. Usually the brains come to her at the Orca Institute. That was where I met up with Camila in mid-December. She was bedecked in marine mammal jewelry, dolphin earrings, a whale bracelet. You get the idea.

The Orca Institute is a conservation organization outside of Vitoria in southeastern Brazil, where before recently taking time off for a short fellowship at Oxford, Camila worked as the scientific director. The morning I was there, a van had just pulled in. So there's a van with a special delivery?

The Orca Institute is a conservation organization outside of Vitoria in southeastern Brazil, where before recently taking time off for a short fellowship at Oxford, Camila worked as the scientific director. The morning I was there, a van had just pulled in. So there's a van with a special delivery?

The Orca Institute is a conservation organization outside of Vitoria in southeastern Brazil, where before recently taking time off for a short fellowship at Oxford, Camila worked as the scientific director. The morning I was there, a van had just pulled in. So there's a van with a special delivery?

The Orca Institute tends to any marine mammal that strands itself along its section of the coast and either rehabilitates and returns it to the water if it's alive, or, as is the case with this recently deceased Guiana dolphin being hoisted into the air, brings it back to their facility to figure out what might have gone wrong.