Teresa Carey:

Keith Rittmaster, curator at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, leads 14 volunteers into the woods to a place he calls the dolphin graveyard.

They plan to dig up the remains of a bottlenose dolphin named Moe. Rittmaster discovered Moe three decades ago during a photographic survey of dolphins in the wild. He takes photos of their dorsal fins. Each notch, scar, and blemish is a unique fingerprint that allows scientists to identify individual animals.

Rittmaster has tracked dozens of dolphins this way. He spent years following Moe across his 100-mile habitat from Nags Head to Cape Lookout.