After college in 1965, Blair Irvine was lucky enough to volunteer for a summer with Kenneth Norris and William Evans. Then, as part of the Navy’s fledgling program, he trained dolphins and an orca for open sea release. In Florida in 1970, Blair trained a dolphin to attack sharks, and he started the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP) with Randy Wells. Starting in 1975, Blair studied manatees for the USFWS. Changing careers in 1981, he moved to Oregon and designed human behavioral interventions with NIH grants. While Blair still volunteers with the SDRP, he ended occasional hands-on work in 2017.